Algeria sits on top of some 3,000 sq. km. of oil.
(SFC, 12/30/96, p.B1)
Berbers make up 25% of the population.
(SFC, 3/16/01, p.A18)
4000BC-2500BC A rock painting from this time in Tassili n'Ajjer, southeastern Algeria, illustrates a battle between 2 prehistoric groups armed with bows and arrows.
(NH, Jul, p.29)
218BC-201BC
Numidia, ancient Roman name for part of northern Africa roughly equivalent to modern Algeria. In the Second Punic War (218-201 BC) between Carthage and Rome, western Numidia supported Carthage. King Masinissa of eastern Numidia joined the Romans. With the victory of Rome, Masinissa controlled all Numidia.
(WWW, Encarta, 12/19/98)
105BC The heart of ancient Numidia lay in the eastern region of what is now Algeria in Northern Africa. The Numidians were originally nomadic horsemen. They were defeated by Roman troops in the Jugurthine War in 105 BC and
conquered by Rome in 46 BC. The Vandals and Byzantines ruled successively before Arabs conquered the area in the seventh century AD. Jugurtha was the king of Numidia.
(HNQ, 6/2/98)(SFC, 2/12/02, p.D3)
49BC Mauretania (now northern Morocco and Algeria) became a client kingdom of Rome.
(AM, May/Jun 97 p.22)
46BC Numidia was conquered by
Rome. The Vandals and Byzantines ruled successively before Arabs conquered the area in the seventh century AD.
(HNQ, 6/2/98)
40 Mauretania was divided into the provinces of
Tingitana and Caesariensis.
(AM, May/Jun 97 p.22)
200-400 Christianity spread rapidly in Numidia and the diocese of Lamiggiga was established. It was later abandoned and just the name was used as
an honorary jurisdiction for Catholic auxiliary bishops.
(SFC, 9/19/98, p.C1)
311 The Donatists were a Christian sect that developed in northern Africa [Numidia] and maintained
that it alone constituted the whole and only true church and that baptisms and ordinations of the orthodox clergy were invalid.
(WUD, 1994, p.425)(SFC, 9/19/98, p.C1)
430 Aug
28, Augustine (b.354) died in Hippo (Annaba, Algeria) with a Vandal army outside the gates of the city. His writings included "The Confessions." In 1999 Garry Wills authored the biography "St. Augustine." Augustine had developed the theory of a "just war" and said a nation’s leaders must consider among other things, anticipated loss of civilian life and whether all peaceful options have been
exhausted before war starts. In 2003 Garry Wills authored "Saint Augustine's Sin." In 2005 James J. O’Donnell authored “Augustine: A New Biography.” Augustine turned against the spirit of intellectual inquiry once he found salvation. His dogmatic invective laid the foundations for centuries of intellectual tyranny by the Catholic church.
(SSFC, 12/21/03, p.M6)(Econ, 5/14/05, p.86)(www.connect.net/ron/august.html)(Econ, 1/29/11, p.82)
439 Oct 19, The Vandals, led by King Gaiseric, took Carthage and quickly conquered all the coastal lands of Algeria and Tunisia. Egypt
and the Libyan coast remained in Roman hands.
(Enc. of Africa, 1976, p.168)(HN, 10/19/98)
c439 In Mauretania (now northern Morocco and Algeria) Roman rule ceased in the mid 5th century when
barbarian incursions forced the legions to withdraw.
(AM, May/Jun 97 )
1518 Algiers and Tunis, Barbary states in North Africa, were
founded.
(TL-MB, p.11)
1530-1539 During this period Khayr Ad-Din (d.1546) known by the European name Barbarossa, meaning Redbeard, united Algeria and Tunisia as military states under the Ottoman
caliphate. He was a Barbary pirate and later as admiral of the Ottoman fleet.
(HNQ, 4/25/02)
1546 Barbarossa, one of the great figures in the court at Istanbul, died. Khayr
Ad-Din was a Barbary pirate and later, as admiral of the Ottoman fleet, he united Algeria and Tunisia as military states under the Ottoman caliphate in the 1530s.
(HNQ, 2/10/99)
1774
Jul 11, Jews of Algiers escaped an attack of the Spanish Army. Jun 11 was also cited for this event.
(MC, 7/11/02)
1795 Nov 28, US paid $800,000 and a frigate
as tribute to Algiers and Tunis.
(MC, 11/28/01)
1815 Mar 2, To put an end to robberies by the Barbary pirates, the United States declared war on
Algiers.
(HN, 3/2/99)
1815 Jun 30, US naval hero Stephen Decatur signed a treaty ending attacks by Algerian pirates. Commodores Stephen Decatur and William Bainbridge had
conducted successful operations against the Barbary States of Algiers, Tunis and Tripoli [See Aug 5].
(WSJ, 10/9/01, p.A22)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Barbary_War)
1815
Aug 5, A peace treaty with Tripoli, which followed treaties with Algeria (Jun 30) and Tunis (Aug 28), brought an end to the Barbary Wars. Commodores Stephen Decatur and William Bainbridge had conducted successful operations against the Barbary States of Algiers, Tunis and Tripoli.
(HN, 8/5/98)(WSJ,
10/9/01, p.A22)(ON, 10/06, p.10)
1816 Aug 27, Admiral Sir Edward Pellew, a noble from Devon, England, bombed Algiers, a refuge for Barbary pirates. He flew the green, white and black flag of St. Petroc. In 1836 the battle was pictured in a painting by
George Chambers, Senior. Pellew was subsequently named Lord Exmouth.
(http://tinyurl.com/gjooc)(Econ, 9/30/06, p.66)
1830 Jul 5, The French occupied the North African city of
Algiers.
(AP, 7/5/97)
1831 The original Zouaves, Zouaoua tribesmen from Algeria, formed their brightly dressed fighting force and later gained renown for their bravery during
the Crimean and Franco-Austrian wars. American units imitated both the dress and battle courage of these fierce fighters.
(HNQ, 10/12/01)
1836 Jul 6, French General Thomas
Bugeaud defeated Abd al-Kader's forces beside the Sikkak River in Algeria.
(HN, 7/6/98)
1845 Sep 8, A French column surrendered at Sidi Brahim in the Algerian
War.
(HN, 9/8/98)
1846 Oct 10, Alexis the Tocqueville wrote about the "Algerian problem."
(MC,
10/10/01)
1848 Delacroix painted “Women of Algiers in Their Apartment.”
(SFC, 1/22/05, p.E1)
1856 In France Emperor Napoleon III decided to quell an impending revolt in Algeria by sending a magician, who would demonstrate the power of the Europeans to the natives. He sent Jean-Eugene Robert Houdini (1805-1871). The 1998 novel "The Magician’s Wife" by Brian Moore is based on the historic events.
The magician is named Henri Lambert.
(WSJ, 1/13/98, p.A20)(SFEC, 1/25/98, BR p.5)
1905 Sep 14, Pierre de Brazza (b.1852), Franco-Italian explorer, died and was buried in
Algeria. He was born in Italy and later naturalized French. Brazza single-handedly opened up for France entry along the right bank of the Congo that eventually led to French colonies in West Africa. In 2006 his remains were exhumed and moved to a mausoleum in Brazzaville, capital of the Republic of Congo.
(Econ, 10/7/06,
p.6)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierre_Savorgnan_de_Brazza)
1909 Nov 15, M. Metrot took off in a Voisin bi-plane from Algiers, making the first manned flight in Africa.
(HN,
11/15/98)
1913 Nov 7, Albert Camus (d.1960), French philosopher, novelist, and dramatist was born in Mondovi, Algeria. He is best known for his book "The Stranger."
(WSJ,
12/12/97, p.A16)(HN, 11/7/98)
1916 Charles de Foucauld, a former French army officer turned monk who lived among the Tuareg people in the Sahara, was killed in an anti-French uprising in Algeria. In 2005 he was beatified by Pope Benedikt XVI. Inspired
by the monk, groups known as the Little Sisters and Little Brothers of Jesus were formed in Algeria.
(AP, 11/13/05)
1919 Ahmed Ben Bella, Algerian statesman, was born. He served
as premier from 1962-1965.
(WUD, 1994 p.137)
1936 Yves St. Laurent, fashion designer, was born in Oran, Algeria.
(SFC, 1/9/97, p.E7)
1940 Jul 4, British destroyed French battle fleet at Oran, Algeria, 1267 died.
(Maggio)
1941 Jul 3, Liamine Zeroual was born.
(WP, 6/29/96, p.A20)
1942 Admiral Jean Francois Darlan, leader of the armed forces of Vichy France, was assassinated in Algiers.
(HN, 6/16/98)(HN, 7/5/98)
1942 Oct 21, Eight American and British officers landed from a submarine on an Algerian beach to take measure of Vichy French to the Operation Torch landings.
(HN, 10/21/00)
1942 Oct 23, The Western Task Force, destined for North Africa, departed from Hampton Roads, Virginia. The command of the Western Task Force, part of an invasion of North Africa during World War II known as Operation Torch, was given to General George Patton. Placed under the command of General George
Patton, the Western Task Force had the advantage of having a man at the top who would stop at nothing to see that the mission was accomplished, a quality that would be needed in the days ahead. Naval operations were in the hands of Rear Adm. H. Kent Hewitt, an easygoing man who, in the beginning, found it difficult to work with Patton, but with increasing familiarity became a solid partner.
(HN, 10/23/98)(HNQ, 12/8/00)
1942 Nov 8, Operation Torch began during World War II as U.S. and British forces landed in French North Africa. Gen’l. Eisenhower landed with
American troops in Algiers, Casablanca.
(AP, 11/8/97)(HN, 11/6/98)(WSJ, 6/4/98, p.A19)(MC, 11/8/01)
1942 Nov 10, Admiral Jean Darlan ordered French forces in North Africa to
cease resistance to the Anglo-American forces. Admiral Jean Francois Darlan, leader of the armed forces of Vichy France, was assassinated in Algiers in 1942.
(HN, 11/10/98)
1942
Nov 13, Lt Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower flew to Algeria to conclude an agreement with French Admiral Jean Darlan. The Admiral was assassinated soon after.
(HN, 11/13/99)
1942
Nov 14, Last Vichy French troops in Algeria surrendered.
(MC, 11/14/01)
1942 Dec 24, Jean LXF Darlan, French admiral and leader of the armed forces of Vichy
France, was murdered by Gaullists in Algiers.
(HN, 7/5/98)(MC, 12/24/01)
1943 May 29, Churchill, Marshall and Eisenhower met in the Confederacy of Algiers.
(SC, 5/29/02)
1944 Mar 15, In Algiers, the provisional government merged the Office Français d'Information and France-Afrique, thus forming Agence
Française de Presse (AFP).
(www.afp.com)
1945 May 8, Algerian demonstrators in the town of Setif unfurled an Algerian flag, banned by the French occupiers. As
police began confiscating the flags, the crowds turned on the French, killing about two dozen of them. This led to an uprising in which Algerians say some 45,000 people may have died. Figures in France put the number at about 15,000 to 20,000. No one is quite sure.
(AP,
5/9/05)
1951 Nov 1, The Algerian National Liberation Front began guerrilla warfare against the French.
(HN, 11/1/98)
1954 Sep 10, A 12 second earthquake killed 1,460 in Orleansville, Algeria.
(MC, 9/10/01)
1954 Oct 31, The Algerian Revolution (1954-1962) against the French began. Algerian Muslims of the Front de Libération National (FLN), began open warfare against French rule in Algeria. [see Nov 1]
(DoW, 1999,
p.10)
1954 Nov 1, Algerian nationalists began their successful eight-year rebellion against French rule. [see Oct 31]
(AP,
11/1/06)
1954 Nov 24, France sent 20,000 soldiers to Algeria.
(MC, 11/24/01)
1954-1962 During the Algerian war of independence French generals approved torture and the disappearance of the 3,000 suspected guerrillas. In 1977 Alistair Horne of Britain authored "A Savage War of Peace." In 2000 former Gen. Paul Aussaresse testified on French military behavior and the approval of Gen. Jacques Massu. In
2001 a mass grave of 290 people was found at the site of the former headquarters of the French army. In 2001 former Gen. Aussaresses authored "Special Services: Algeria: 1955-1957." In 2002 Aussaresses was convicted of "trying to justify war" and was fined $6,500.
(SFC, 12/31/00, p.B9)(SFC, 4/24/01, p.A12)(SFC, 5/11/01,
p.D4)(SFC, 1/26/02, p.A8)
1954-1989 Leon-Etienne Duval served as archbishop of Algiers, He was one of the first French public figures to recognize Algeria’s right to independence and worked to that end.
(SFC, 5/31/96, p.E2)
1955 Aug 20, Hundreds of people were killed in anti-French rioting in Morocco and Algeria.
(AP,
8/20/97)
1956 Feb 6, French PM Guy Mollet was pelted with rotten tomatoes at a demonstration in Algiers. The French refer to this memorable event as "la journée des tomates."
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guy_Mollet)
1956 Mar 27, French commandos landed in Algeria.
(MC,
3/27/02)
1956 Apr 11, French government sent 200,000 reservists to Algeria.
(MC, 4/11/02)
1956 May 10, French government sent 50,000 reservists to Algeria. [see Apr 11]
(MC, 5/10/02)
1956
May 27, The French staged a raid in Algiers.
(MC, 5/27/02)
1956 Jun 22, The battle for Algiers began as three buildings in Casbah were blown up. France under
PM Guy Mollet resolved to put down the Arab uprising and put 400,000 soldiers in Algiers.
(HN, 6/22/98)(Econ, 7/29/06, p.24)
1956 Sep 30, In Algiers a blast at the Milk Bar cafe
together with another device set off nearby, killed three people and wounded 60, including children. Several people lost limbs sliced off by flying glass. Zohra Drif (20) set one device as a reprisal for a big French bombing that killed dozens in the Casbah weeks earlier. Captured soon afterwards, she was sentenced to death and spent five years in French
prisons.
(Reuters, 9/28/06)
1956 Sep, Sanche de Gramont (23), a graduate of Yale, departed for Algeria. He spent 16 months there as a French lieutenant working for a pro-French
newspaper. He later changed his name to Ted Morgan and in 2006 authored “My Battle of Algiers.”
(WSJ, 2/2/06, p.D8)
1956 Oct 22, France intercepted a Moroccan plane and arrested
Ben Bella, an Algerian statesman.
(MC, 10/22/01)
1956 Gen. Jacques Massu (d.2002 at 94) took command of the French 10th Parachute Division, the elite force tasked with
maintaining order in Algeria.
(SFC, 10/28/02, p.A17)
1956-1959 France laid minefields on the Challe and Morice Lines on the eastern and western borders of Algeria. In 2007 France gave Algeria maps
of these minefields. Some 11 million mines were laid along the borders to prevent infiltration into Algeria from Morocco and Tunisia by fighters of Algeria's National Liberation Army (ALN). From 1962-2009 over 8 million Algeria destroyed over 8 million of the mines.
(AFP, 10/8/09)
1957 Jan, France began sending troops to Algeria to crush the rebel movement in what came to be called "The Battle for Algiers."
(SFC, 5/11/01,
p.D4)
1957 May 29, Algerian rebels killed 336 collaborators.
(SC, 5/29/02)
1957 Jun 16, There was a French offensive in Algeria.
(MC, 6/16/02)
1957 Dec 25,
Ramdane Abane (b.1920), Algerian Berber revolutionary leader, was assassinated in Morocco.
(www.amazighworld.org/history/personalities/ramdane_abane.php)(SFC, 6/28/08, p.E2)
1958
May 13, French troops took control of Algiers as French settlers rioted against the French army.
(HN, 5/13/98)(MC, 5/13/02)
1958 Jun 4, French premier De
Gaulle arrived in Algiers.
(MC, 6/4/02)
1958 Jun 6, Premier Charles de Gaulle said Algeria will always be French.
(MC, 6/6/02)
1958 Oct 23, De Gaulle offered Algerian defiance "peace of the brave."
(MC, 10/23/01)
1959 Apr 12, France Observator reported torture practice by French army in Algeria.
(MC, 4/12/02)
1960
Jul, French Gen. Raoul Salan led a failed army revolt in Algeria and then fled abroad, continuing to direct increasing terrorist Secret Army Organization (OAS) attacks on the French and Algerian governments, turning the Algerian War of Independence into a three-way war in Algeria and a right-wing guerrilla insurrection in France.
(http://www.onwar.com/aced/data/foxtrot/france1960.htm)
1960 Feb 13, Gerboise Bleue ("blue jerboa") was the name of the first French nuclear test. It was an atomic bomb
detonated in the middle of the Algerian Sahara desert, during the Algerian War (1954-62).
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerboise_Bleue)
1960 Apr 1, France exploded a 2nd atom bomb in the Sahara Desert. Gerboise Blanche (“white gerboa”) was a surface shot fired in a seven meter deep pit, which accounted for the strange, Christmas tree-like shape of the fireball. General Ailleret once again personally initiated the firing of the device.
(www.sonicbomb.com/modules.php?name=Content&pa=showpage&pid=112)
1960 Dec 27, France exploded a 3rd atom bomb in the Sahara Desert, code-named
Gerboise Rouge (“red gerboa”).
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerboise_Bleue)
1961 Apr 21, The French army revolted in Algeria.
(HN, 4/21/98)
1961 Apr 22, An uprising of French parachutists was led by Gen. Salan/Challe in Algeria.
(MC, 4/22/02)
1961 Apr 25, France exposed soldiers to a nuclear test, code-named "Gerboise verte" or green gerboa, in the Sahara Desert. In 2010 a French news report, citing a classified defense document, said the exposure was intentional to study how
the atomic bomb would affect their bodies and minds. In total, France conducted 210 nuclear tests, both in the atmosphere and underground, in the Sahara Desert and the South Pacific from 1960-1996.
(AP, 2/17/10)
1961 Apr 26, French paratroopers' revolt was suppressed in Algeria.
(MC, 4/26/02)
1961 Oct 17, Paris police beat and killed dozens of
Algerian demonstrators and threw some bodies into the Seine. The police were commanded by Maurice Papon. Papon said some 30 bodies had been recovered from the Seine but that they had been killed in fighting between rival Algerian nationalist groups. In 1999 France agreed to open its archives on the issue. Police killed 210 Algerians who were protesting against police oppression and the curfew
imposed against their community in Paris. On Oct 17, 2011, Algeria's post office issued a new stamp to commemorate the massacre.
(WSJ, 5/5/98, p.A1)(SFC, 5/6/99, p.A15)(Econ, 2/24/07, p.99)(AFP, 10/17/11)
1962 Jan, In Paris a series of bombings began and continued thru February by hardline soldiers opposed to Algeria’s independence, the Organization of the Secret Army (OAS).
(Econ, 2/18/12, ILp.15)
1962 Feb 5, French President Charles De Gaulle called for Algeria's independence.
(AP, 2/5/97)
1962
Mar 18, France and Algerian rebels agreed to a truce, which took effect the next day.
(HN, 3/18/98)(AP, 3/18/08)
1962 Mar 19, Relative calm returned to
Algeria after cease-fire, ending 7 years of warfare between French and Algerian Nationalists.
(AP, 3/19/03)
1962 Apr 20, The Secret Army Organization (OAS) leader and ex-general
Salan was arrested in Algiers.
(MC, 4/20/02)(PCh, 1992, p.984)
1962 May 2, OAS (Secret Army Organization) struck in
Algeria.
(MC, 5/2/02)
1962 May 23, OAS leader general Raoul Salan was sentenced to life in prison. French general Raoul Salan led a failed army revolt in Algeria (July, 1960)
and then fled abroad, continuing to direct increasing terrorist Secret Army Organization (OAS) attacks on the French and Algerian governments, turning the Algerian War of Independence into a three-way war in Algeria and a right-wing guerrilla insurrection in France.
(http://tinyurl.com/d8qm2)
1962 Jul 1, Some 6 million of a total Algerian electorate of 6.5 million cast their ballots in the referendum on independence. The vote was nearly unanimous. De Gaulle pronounced Algeria an independent country on July 3. The
Provisional Executive, however, proclaimed July 5, the 132nd anniversary of the French entry into Algeria, as the day of national independence.
(www.onwar.com/aced/data/alpha/falgeria1954.htm)
1962 Jul 3, French Pres. Charles De Gaulle pronounced Algeria an independent country following the July 1 elections. De Gaulle evacuated Algeria and a million settlers flooded into France.
(WSJ, 11/16/95,
p.A-18)(www.onwar.com/aced/data/alpha/falgeria1954.htm)
1962 Jul 5, Algeria’s Provisional Executive proclaimed July 5, the 132nd anniversary of the French entry into Algeria, as the day of national independence. French Pres. Charles De Gaulle had
pronounced Algeria an independent country on Jul 3 following the July 1 elections. A massacre in Oran, Algeria, left 96 dead.
(www.onwar.com/aced/data/alpha/falgeria1954.htm)(http://tinyurl.com/a5ky8)
1962 A gas fire in Algeria called “The Devil’s Cigarette Lighter” had burned for 6 months until it was put out by Texas firefighter Red Adair (1915-2004).
(Econ, 8/14/04, p.78)
1962-1963 Ahmed Ben Bella, Algerian statesman, served as prime minister. He served as president from 1963 to 1965.
(WUD, 1994 p.137)(http://www.rulers.org/indexb2.html)
1963
Mar 19, Algeria demanded that France negotiate on ending nuclear testing in Algerian Sahara.
(AP, 3/19/03)
1963 Mohamed Khider (1912-1967), Algerian
politician, went into exile in Switzerland, bringing $12-14 million of party funds with him, saying they would be used to finance a political opposition to continue the "genuine" nationalist tradition of the FLN.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mohamed_Khider)
1963-1979 Mouloud Hamrouche, economic reformist, served as the prime minister. Abdelaziz Bouteflika served as the foreign minister.
(WSJ, 4/16/99, p.A12)
1964 Jun 15, The last French troops left Algeria.
(HN, 6/15/98)
1965 Jun 19, Col.
Houari Boumedienne (1932-1978) overthrew Pres. Ahmed Ben Bella, Algeria's first civilian president. Abdelaziz Bouteflika was Boumedienne's right-hand man.
(SFEC, 4/18/99, p.A22)(www.factmonster.com/ipka/A0107272.html)
1967 Jan 4, Mohamed Khider (b.1912), Algerian politician and a leading figure in the FLN, was assassinated in Madrid, Spain.
(Econ, 12/31/11,
p.67)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mohamed_Khider)
1969 The first Panafrican Festival took place in Algiers amid widespread euphoria. Most African nations had just gained independence, they were full of hope, and Algeria was spearheading the
nonaligned movement balancing between the Western and Soviet blocks. A 2nd Panafrican Festival did not take place until 2009.
(AP, 7/9/09)
1970 Sep 12, US professor Timothy
Leary, LSD proponent, escaped from a California jail. Leary escaped from the State Men’s Colony in San Luis Obispo with the help of his third wife, Rosemary and the Weather Underground. He went to Algiers and joined Black Panther leader Eldridge Cleaver, who kidnapped the Learys after a political disagreement. They soon escaped and made their way to Afghanistan. In 1974 he was caught and revealed
his collaborators to the FBI.
(http://tinyurl.com/4ncp8t)(SFC, 6/1/96, p.A7)(SFC, 7/1/99, p.A9)
1970 Algeria's Socialist government permitted American writer and activist
Eldridge Cleaver to open a local office of the Black Panther Movement.
(AP, 9/28/11)
1971 Feb 24, Algeria nationalized French oil
companies.
(www.nationsencyclopedia.com/Africa/Algeria-ENERGY-AND-POWER.html)
1972 Jul 31, George Wright, dressed as a priest and using an alias, hijacked a Delta flight from
Detroit to Miami with four other BLA members and three children. They released 86 other passengers in exchange for a $1 million ransom and forced the plane to fly to Boston. There an international navigator was taken aboard, and the plane was flown to Algeria, where the hijackers sought asylum. Wright's associates were tracked down, arrested, tried and convicted in Paris in 1976. In 2011 Wright
(68) was arrested in Portugal.
(www.edmontonsun.com/2011/09/27/us-fugitive-caught-after-41-years)
1973 Nov 28, Arab League summit in Algiers recognized
Palestine.
(www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/History/arabsum73.html)
1973 Oct 16, OPEC, the Arab oil-producing nations, announced they would begin cutting back on oil
exports to Western nations and Japan. The next day, the five Arab members of the OPEC committee were joined in Kuwait by the oil ministers of Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Libya, and Syria. The result was a total embargo that lasted until March 1974 and caused oil prices to quadruple.
(www.harvardir.org/articles/1659/)(AP,
10/17/97)(WSJ, 7/28/03, p.A8)
1975 Mar 6, OPEC held a meeting in Algiers attended for the first time by its members’ top leaders. Here the Algiers Accord between Baghdad and Teheran put an end to their border dispute and brought all Iranian help to
the Kurdish rebellion to a halt. The United States abruptly withdrew its support for the Kurds and the rebellion collapsed. Many thousands of Kurdish fighters and their families were forced to flee to Iran to escape the pursuing Iraqi army.
(http://mondediplo.com/2002/10/06timeline)(SFC, 11/19/07,
p.A11)
1975 The Algerian film "Chronicle of the Years of Embers" was produced.
(SFC, 9/6/99, p.B5)
1978 Dec 27, Algerian President Houari Boumediene, one of the Third World's most prominent and outspoken leaders, died after 40 days in a coma.
(AP, 12/27/03)
1979 Feb 18, Snow fell in the Sahara Desert of southern Algeria.
(www.distant.ca/UselessFacts/fact.asp?ID=103)
1979 Jul 4, Algerian ex-president Ben Bella (b.1918) was freed after 14 years of detention, but remained under house arrest. He had served as prime minister from 1962-63, and as president from 1963-65. Bella was freed on Oct 20, 1980.
(http://www.rulers.org/indexb2.html)(www.cnn.com/almanac/9807/04/)
1980 Oct 10, Some 4,500 died when a pair of earthquakes struck NW Algeria. In 1983 the “El-Asnam Algeria Earthquake of October 10, 1980 a Reconnaissance and Engineering Report” was
published.
(http://tinyurl.com/2ud4vh)
1980 In Algeria Berber anti-government sentiment was mobilized in the "Tamazight Spring"
uprising.
(SFC, 3/16/01, p.A18)
1982 In Algeria earnest work began in Algiers for Africa's second metro after Cairo. The underground metro system opened in 2011.
(AFP, 10/31/11)
1983 Algeria signed a secret deal with China for the fabrication of the 15MW Es Salam reactor at Ain Oussera. It came online in
1993.
(http://isaintel.com/site/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=58&Itemid=1)
1984 Jul 3, Raoul Salan (b.1899), French general,
OAS leader (Algeria), died. Salan was one of the four Generals who organized the 1961 Algiers Putsch operation, and then founded the Organization armée secrète (OAS) terrorist group.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raoul_Salan)
1984 Porch, Douglas authored "The Conquest of the Sahara," NY: Knopf. Tuaregs -- Algeria History. Algeria -- History -- 1830-1962.
(WWW, 12/19/98)
1985 The ban on rai music was lifted. The music was marked by a danceable beat produced on the darbuka drum and fused influences from beyond the Arab world. It had grown out of the nightclub music of the 1930s, which was based on more traditional North African
song.
(WSJ, 9/19/00, p.A24)
1987 Apr 7, Ali Mecili, a lawyer active in Algeria's human rights movement, was killed by three gunshots in the foyer of his Paris apartment.
Colleagues accused the Algerian government of involvement. In 2008 Algerian diplomat Mohamed Ziane Hasseni was arrested at an airport in the French port city of Marseille, based on an international arrest warrant. A Paris judge had signed the orders for the arrest of Hassani and the suspected killer, Abdelmalek Amellouet, in December last year. Hasseni was released on Feb
27.
(AP, 10/17/08)(http://tinyurl.com/67pryj)(AP, 2/2809)
1988 Apr 20, Gunmen who had hijacked a Kuwait Airways jumbo jet were allowed safe passage out of Algeria. An agreement
also freed the remaining 31 hostages and ended a 15-day siege in which two passengers were slain.
(AP, 4/20/98)
1988 Oct 11, Violence began to subside in Algeria, where mass
rioting by youths had broken out a week earlier, prompting the government to declare a state of siege.
(AP, 10/11/98)
1988 Oct, Berber riots left hundreds dead in the "Black
October" riots.
(SFC, 3/16/01, p.A18)
1988 Nov 12, The Palestine National Council, the legislative body of the PLO, opened a four-day meeting in Algiers, during which delegates
proclaimed an independent Palestinian state.
(AP, 11/12/98)
1989 Jan, In Spain ETA called a unilateral truce to help ultimately unsuccessful peace talks in
Algeria.
(AP, 3/22/06)
1989 Feb 23, Algeria adopted a new, relatively liberal constitution. It disestablished the ruling party and made no mention of socialism, while promising
freedom of expression, association, and assembly.
(WSJ, 12/3/96, p.A22)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constitution_of_Algeria)
1989 Jul, Rai singer Cheb Mami returned to Algeria
for his 1st concert in a decade. In 1999 Mami recorded "Desert Rose" with Sting.
(WSJ, 9/19/00, p.A24)
1989 The Arab Maghreb Union was created to encourage free trade between
Algeria, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco and Tunisia. It failed to hold summit meetings after 1994.
(Econ, 5/29/10, p.50)
1991 Dec 27, Muslim fundamentalists in Algeria won a major
victory in free legislative elections; however, the military ended up canceling the election results.
(AP, 12/27/01)
1991 In Algeria the military forced Prime Minister Mouloud
Hamrouche to resign.
(SFC, 3/25/98, p.C2)
1991 In Algeria leaders of the outlawed Islamic Salvation Front (FIS) were arrested and sentenced to 12 years in prison. Abassi Madani and Ali Belhadj were released Jul 2,
2003.
(Econ, 7/12/03, p.40)
1991 US intelligence discovered that Algeria possessed a nuclear research reactor at Ain Oussera, which was surrounded by air defenses.
(Econ, 8/25/07, p.56)(http://tinyurl.com/2j86s7)
1991-1995 The US has won 54% of all new oil exploration licenses in this time.
(WSJ, 12/18/95,
p.A-10)
1991-1998 Chronicle of Algeria.
(http://mondediplo.com/1999/03/04algeria)
1992 Jan 10, In an army coup the government cancelled elections that were running strongly in favor of the Islamic Salvation Front (FIS). France supported the move which led to a bloody struggle between the Algerian army and Algerian fundamentalist (Armed Islamic Group, GIA) guerillas that by 1995 claimed nearly 40,000 lives and numerous bomb attacks in
France.
(WSJ, 10/26/95, p.A-22)(SFC, 11/14/96, p.A12)(SFC, 1/8/96, p.A7)
1992 Jan 11, The president of Algeria (Chadli Bendjedid) resigned, two weeks after Muslim
fundamentalists had defeated his ruling party in legislative elections.
(AP, 1/11/02)
1992 Feb 9, The government of Algeria declared a state of emergency to quell spreading
Muslim fundamentalist unrest.
(AP, 2/9/02)
1992 Jun 29, Mohammad Boudiaf (73), the president of Algeria, was assassinated by his body guard during his first public appearance,
in Annaba. A few seconds after the president Mohammed Boudiaf spoke the words “We are all going to die,” an assassin in uniform raised his submachine gun and killed the Algerian head of state. It was his first trip outside Algiers since he took office after a military coup in January. In the confusion and panic that followed, 41 other people were wounded by gunfire and grenades. Boudiaf was
succeeded by army officer Liamine Zeroual.
(http://tinyurl.com/pdcmb)(www.therace.ws/facts007.html)
1992-1995 The civil war in Algeria claimed some 40,000
lives.
(www.heritage.org/Research/Africa/BG1060.cfm)
1993 Nov, In Algeria an ultimatum issued by the Armed Islamic Group (GIA) urged foreigners to leave or be killed. GIA
terrorists assassinated Sheikh Mohamed Bouslimani, who was closely associated with Hamas, a more moderate Islamist group, when he agreed to participate in a dialogue with the regime.
(http://www.emergency.com/algrwarn.htm)
1993 Dec 14, In Algeria a large group of armed terrorists attacked a work camp of a hydro-electric project in Tamezguida. Fourteen Croatian citizens were taken out of the camp. Twelve were murdered by having their throats slit, but two others escaped with
injuries.
(www.milnet.com/state/chrono93.htm)
1993 Algeria stopped applying death sentences.
(AP,
1/29/11)
1993 The Armed Islamic Group (GIA) first emerged and became most active around Algiers.
(SFC, 9/27/97, p.A10)
1993 Karima Belhadj
was the first woman killed in a rebel attack.
(SFC, 3/9/99, p.B10)
1994 Sep, Lounes Matoub, a popular Berber singer, was kidnapped by Islamic militants. He was held for over 2
weeks and released after over 100,000 people demonstrated for his freedom.
(SFC, 6/27/98, p.A13)
1994 Dec 24, Armed Islamic fundamentalists hijacked an Air France Airbus A-300
carrying 227 passengers at the Algiers airport; three passengers were killed before the hijackers were killed by French commandos in Marseille two days later.
(SFC, 9/27/97, p.A10)(AP, 12/24/99)
1994 Dec 26, French commandos stormed a hijacked Air France jetliner on the ground in Marseilles, killing four Algerian hijackers and freeing 170 hostages. The Air France plane was hijacked by the Armed Islamic Group of Algeria Dec 24.
(SFC, 9/27/97, p.A10)(AP,
12/26/99)
1994 Dec 27, Four Roman Catholic priests—three French and a Belgian—were shot to death in their rectory in Algiers, a day after French commandos killed four radicals who had hijacked an Air France jet from Algiers to Marseille.
(AP, 12/27/00)
1994 Algeria closed its common border with Morocco after Morocco claimed Algerian secret service agents were behind an Islamist extremist attack in Marrakech.
Algiers later set a global settlement of the conflict in Western Sahara as a precondition for reopening the border.
(AFP, 7/30/08)
1994 Algeria set up auxiliaries, known as "communal guards," to bolster local police in villages
across the country where authorities were locked in a deadly confrontation with armed Islamist groups.
(AFP, 7/9/12)
1994 In Algeria Islamic militants killed Cheb Hasni, a rai singer. This led to increase of defections by musicians
to France.
(WSJ, 9/19/00, p.A24)
1995 Jan 30, At least 42 people were killed and nearly 300 wounded when a car bomb blamed on Muslim insurgents exploded in downtown
Algiers.
(AP, 1/30/00)
1995 Feb 22, Security forces in Algiers crushed a prison uprising by Islamic extremists, resulting in 96 deaths by official count.
(AP, 2/22/00)
1995 April 4, Fierce fighting continues in Algeria as Muslim revolutionaries struggle against the military regime in power. It was estimated that over 1,000
people are being killed per month. France backs the military regime who, stopped free elections last year when it was clear that the Muslim fundamentalists were going to win.
(NPR)
1995
Aug 20, The Algerian government planned presidential elections for Nov. 16, but Muslim militants vowed to derail the plans. Some 40,000 people have been killed since the government cancelled elections in 1992.
(WSJ, 8/21/95, p.A-1)
1995 In Algeria a bloody struggle continued between the army and Islamic fundamentalist forces, which included the FIS (Islamic Salvation Front) and the GIA (Armed Islamic Group).
(WSJ, 10/23/95, p.A-1)(WSJ, 10/26/95, p.A-22)(SFC,
7/2/99, p.A12)
1995 France imposed lengthy cross-checks for Algerians traveling to Europe due to the war with Islamist rebels. The weeks long wait was finally reduced in 2006.
(Econ, 11/18/06,
p.48)
1995 Algerian Gen. Mohamed Boutaghene, commander of the Coast Guard, was killed by gunmen in south Algiers. He was the highest ranking officer killed in four years of struggle.
(WSJ, 11/29/95,
p.A-1)
1995 French subway train bombings left 8 people dead. In 1999 five people linked to Algerian militants were sentenced to 10-year prison terms for the attacks. 16 others received lesser sentences. In 2002 Boualem Bensaid and Smain Ait Ali Belkacem, Islamic militants, were convicted and sentenced to
life in prison for their roles in the bombings.
(WSJ, 9/16/99, p.A1)(SFC, 10/31/02, p.A9)
1995 In Algeria more than 3,000 people died this year in fighting between the government and Islamic
fundamentalists.
(WSJ, 7/11/96, p.A10)
1996 Feb, Two car bombs killed 17 and wounded 93 in Algeria's capital.
(WSJ, 2/12/96, p.A-1)
1996 Mar 27, In Algeria the Armed Islamic Group kidnapped seven French monks from the Notre Dame del’Atlas monastery near Medea.
(SFC, 5/24/96, p.A14)
1996 May 23, The Armed Islamic Group said that it had killed 7 French Trappist monks who were kidnapped two months ago from the Notre Dame de l’Atlas monastery at Tibhirine near Medea on Mar 27. Only their decapitated heads were
found. In 2002 John W. Kister authored "The Monks of Tibhirine." In 2010 this story was covered in the French film “Of Gods and Men.”
(SFC, 5/24/96, p.A14)(WSJ, 2/19/02, p.A24)(Econ, 2/19/11, p.95)
1996 May 30, Former arch-bishop of Algiers, Cardinal Leon-Etienne Duval, died in Paris. He was one of the first French public figures to recognize Algeria’s right to independence.
(SFC, 5/31/96, p.E2)
1996 Jul 15, An Algerian court sentenced 128 Muslim militants to death in absentia for their involvement in guerilla activities. Another 67 were sentenced in absentia to life imprisonment.
(SFC, 7/16/96,
p.A7)
1996 Jul 20, A bomb exploded in suburban Algiers and killed 5 people. 30 more were injured.
(SFC, 7/21/96, p.A13)
1996 Jul 16, An ambush in Algeria killed the former head of a militant Muslim group.
(WSJ, 7/29/96, p.A1)
1996 Aug 15, Armed militants killed 17 passengers on a bus using a fake police barricade on a remote highway.
(SFC, 8/19/96, p.A9)
1996 Aug
17, More than 100 militants shot, stabbed and hacked to death some 63 people when they attacked 2 busses after setting a fake barricade. The government denied the report.
(SFC, 8/20/96, p.A9)
1996 Oct 21, The Mayor of Algiers, Ali Boucetta, was killed by a stray bullet in fighting between security forces and rebels in Algiers.
(SFC, 10/22/96, p.B1)
1996 Oct 22, A new constitution was drafted that would ban Islamic militants from seeking power. It was to be put up for referendum on Nov. 28.
(SFC, 10/23/96, p.A10)
1996 Nov 13, Militants slit the throats of 12 people outside Blida, 30 miles south of Algiers. Ten of the victims were of the same family.
(SFC, 11/14/96, p.A12)
1996 Nov 14, Militants slit the throats of 18 people. 11 in Ain-Dema and 7 in Douar Zemala.
(SFC, 11/15/96, p.A18)
1996 Nov 28, A referendum
was passed that banned political parties based on religion, language and regionalism, a reference to the large Berber community which has long worked for recognition of its language. Opponents denounced the elections as a sham.
(SFC, 11/30/96, p.A12)
1996 Dec 6, In the last 2 days 29 civilians have had their throats slit by rebels.
(SFC, 12/7/96, p.A10)
1996 Dec 26, A car bomb exploded in a crowded suburb of Algiers. At least 10 were killed and 86 injured.
(SFC, 12/27/96, p.B3)
1996
Authorities shut down the newspaper La Nation run by Salima Ghezali.
(SFC, 3/25/98, p.C2)
1997 Jan 7, In Algiers a car bomb killed 13 and wounded
10.
(SFC, 1/8/96, p.A7)
1997 Jan 19, A car bomb killed 21 and wounded dozens in Algiers just hours after attackers massacred 36 villagers south of the
capital.
(SFC, 1/20/97, p.A12)
1997 Jan 21, In Algeria 2 car bombs in the capital killed as a many as 18 people.
(SFC, 1/22/97, p.A8)
1997 Jan 28, Union leader Abdelhak Benhamouda was killed by an assassin. A bomb in the marketplace at Blida killed 15 people.
(USAT,
1/29/97, p.8A)
1997 Feb 2, In Algeria Islamic guerrillas killed 31 people. The dead were all believed to be related to a dissident member of the GIA, the Armed Islamic Group. After their throats were cut a dwarf hacked off their heads with an ax and a
knife.
(SFC, 2/3/97, p.C2)
1997 Feb 5, Rebels killed a family of 9 by hacking off their heads in Benchikao. The government in Algiers began banning parked cars in the city to
thwart car bomb attacks.
(SFC, 2/6/97, p.C2)
1997 Feb 18, Islamic militants shot, hacked or burned to death 33 people in Blida, south of Algiers. Meanwhile the government passed
a law that banned political parties based on religion, language and regionalism.
(SFC, 2/19/96, p.A10)
1997 Apr 6, In Algeria attackers massacred 90 villagers at various sites
over the last 2 days. 52 people had their throats slit near Medea by about 50 killers; 15 were killed in Amroussa and their bodies were burned with gasoline.
(SFC, 4/7/97, p.A8)
1997
Apr 21, In Algeria rebels butchered 93 people including 43 women and girls in the Baouch Boukhelef-Khemisti farming community.
(SFC, 4/23/97, p.A5)
1997 Apr
25, A bomb killed some 21 passengers and injured 20 near Algiers.
(SFC, 4/26/97, p.A12)
1997 May 6, A car bomb in Algiers killed 4 students and injured 25
people.
(SFC, 5/7/97, p.C3)
1997 May 15, Armed men massacred 30 villagers, 17 of them children, in Chebli, 15 miles south of the capital.
(SFC, 5/16/97, p.A8)
1997 May 22, In Algeria a car bomb killed 15 people in Boufarik south of the capital.
(SFC, 5/23/97, p.A18)
1997 May 23, In Algiers 2 car bombs exploded and killed 7 people and wounded 12 in the town of Tlemcen.
(SFC, 5/24/97,
p.C1)
1997 May 29, In Algeria armed men attacked a home in Djebabra and slit the throats of 6 men and 2 women.
(SFC, 5/30/97,
p.A16)
1997 Jun 5, Algeria scheduled Parliamentary elections. In a 65% turnout pro-government forces took the largest share of votes. Two Islamist parties picked up 1/4th of the parliament seats. Monitors were not allowed to inspect some 5,000
portable voting booths.
(SFC, 5/16/97, p.A8)(SFC, 6/10/97, p.A16)
1997 Jun 16, In Algeria post-election violence more than 50 people were slain in recent days. Blame was place
on the Armed Islamic Group.
(SFC, 6/17/97, p.D2)
1997 Jun 19, A bomb in an Algiers movie theater killed 2 and wounded 20.
(WSJ, 6/20/97, p.A1)
1997 Jul 9, Adbelkader Hachani, Muslim fundamentalist leader, was freed hours after an Algerian court sentenced him to 5 years in prison. He had been held without trial since 1991 when the military voided a vote
that his group was set to win.
(WSJ, 7/10/97, p.A1)
1997 Jul 14, A bomb exploded in an Algiers market filled with women and children and killed 21 people and wounded 40. Weekend
massacres left 40 villagers dead.
(SFC, 7/15/97, p.A10)
1997 Jul 15, Abassi Madani, former leader of the Islamic Salvation Front, was released in Algeria after serving 5 years
of a 12 year sentence.
(SFC, 7/16/97, p.C12)
1997 Jul 15, An Algerian court condemned 24 Muslim militants to death for their involvement in guerrilla activities.
(SFC, 7/16/97, p.A10)
1997 Jul 22, Algerian troops killed 140 of 180 radical Islamist guerrillas in the Attatba area of Blida province in an offensive that began 10 days ago.
(SFC, 7/23/97, p.A9)
1997 Jul 24, It was reported that Algerian security forces killed Antar Zouabri (26), the chief of the Armed Islamic Group.
(SFC,
7/25/97, p.A11)
1997 Jul 30, It was reported that Muslim militants in Algeria massacred over 80 villagers in recent attacks in apparent retaliation to a government offensive. 40 villagers were killed at Metmata village in Ain Defla
province.
(WSJ, 7/29/97, p.A12)(SFEC, 8/3/97, p.A15)
1997 Aug 1, In Algeria 38 villagers at Sidi el Madani in Blida province were
killed.
(SFEC, 8/3/97, p.A19)
1997 Aug 8, In Ddjelfa, Algeria, a bomb in a baby bassinet killed 9 people. In the village of Zeboudja insurgents slit the throats of 21 people and
20 others were shot and wounded.
(SFC, 8/11/97, p.A8)
1997 Aug 28, In Algeria a 2nd bomb this week killed 8 people in the
Casbah.
(USAT, 8/29/97, p.8A)
1997 Aug 29, In Algeria some 300 villagers of Rais were slain by hooded men armed with axes in an Algerian farm village in the worst carnage
since an Islamic insurgency began. In addition 20 young women were abducted.
(SFC, 8/30/97, p.A10)(AP, 8/29/98)
1997 Sep 4, In Algeria 22 people were killed in El Arbi. Their
throats were slit and bodies burned.
(SFC, 9/5/97, p.A12)
1997 Sep 6, In Algeria at least 87 people were killed and 100 injured by about 50 attackers in the town of Beni
Messous.
(SFEC, 9/7/97, p.A8)
1997 Sep 13, In Algeria security forces killed 8 suspected Muslim militants in a rocket attack on a mosque in a suburb of the capital. Earlier a
Muslim cleric was assassinated by suspected militants in Constantine.
(WSJ, 9/15/97, p.A1)
1997 Sep 15, In Algeria 7 people were killed in Saida by masked assailants and four
people had their throats cut in Medea.
(SFC, 9/16/97, p.A12)
1997 Sep 21, In Algeria an armed group killed 53 people in Beni-Slimane and then mutilated and burned the
bodies.
(SFC, 9/22/97, p.A9)
1997 Sep 23, In Algeria the government reported that 85 people were killed, while eyewitnesses counted more than 200 bodies in the Bentalha
neighborhood of the Baraki suburb of Algiers. Armed men raided an Algerian village, killing at least 200 people in one of the worst massacres since Algeria's Islamic insurgency began.
(AP, 9/23/98)(SFC, 9/24/97, p.A10)
1997 Sep 24, In Algeria the Islamic Salvation Army (AIS) declared a truce and blamed recent killings on a splinter fundamentalist group, the Armed Islamic Group (GIA).
(WSJ, 9/25/97, p.A1)(SFC, 9/27/97,
p.A10)
1997 Sep 26, In Algeria militants attacked the village of El Hadj and killed 15 people.
(SFC, 9/30/97, p.A12)
1997 Sep 27, In Algeria witnesses said armed men killed 11 female teachers at Ain Adden School in Sfisef while shouting "Blood, blood, blood, destruction, destruction, destruction," the rallying cry of the Armed Islamic Group.
(SFC,
9/30/97, p.A12)
1997 Oct 2, In Algeria attackers killed 20 members of a wedding party in Blida.
(SFEC, 10/5/97, p.A22)
1997 Oct 3, In Algeria armed men killed 38 people at the village of Mahelma. Throat of the victims were slit, heads were cut off and houses were set on fire. In Blida 10 people were killed and 20 wounded by assailants with homemade rockets and bombs. Another group of attackers killed 75 others including
34 children. In the village of Ouled Benaissa armed men killed 37 people including 22 children.
(SFC, 10/4/97, p.A10)(SFEC, 10/5/97, p.A22)
1997 Oct 5, In Algeria armed men
attacked a school bus near Blida. The driver attempted to run their roadblock but crashed and 16 children were killed by the attackers.
(SFC, 10/6/97, p.A11)
1997 Oct 14,
Fifty-four people were massacred near the main oil and gas center. Four leading human rights organizations called on world leaders to take steps to halt the crises in Algeria.
(SFC,10/15/97, p.C2)
1997 Oct 23, Algeria held local elections. The government claimed a 66% turnout. The winners will choose 2/3 of the members of the upper house of parliament. Pres. Zeroual will choose the other third. Opposition parties charged that the turnout was greatly inflated and that some poll watchers were roughed up and stopped from observing the
tally.
(SFC,10/24/97, p.D2,4)(SFC,10/24/97, p.A10)
1997 Oct 27, In Algeria some 15,000 supporters of the Socialist Forces Front marched to protest fraud in the
elections.
(SFC,10/28/97, p.A10)
1997 Oct 30, In Algeria some 30,000 marched in Algiers in protest over the elections and called for the resignation of Prime Minister Ahmed
Ouyahia.
(SFC,10/31/97, p.D2)
1997 Nov 8, In Algeria armed men raided a government-held village and slaughtered 27 people in
Lahmalit.
(SFC,11/11/97, p.A13)
1997 Nov 9, In Algeria attackers disguised as policemen slit the throats of 28 civilians in 2 separate attacks in the
northwest.
(SFEC,11/10/97, p.A13)
1997 Nov, A senior Algerian officer accused the secret service of being responsible for the Sept. massacre in Beni Messous where over 200
died.
(SFC,12/10/97, p.A14)
1997 Nov, In Algeria the armed wing of the FIS began to observe a truce.
(SFC, 7/2/99, p.A12)
1997 Dec 9, A former Algerian diplomat in London said that the government was involved in the recent massacres of civilians to garner support against the Islamic opposition.
(SFC,12/10/97, p.A14)
1997 Dec 17, In France Salima Ghezali, Algerian human rights campaigner, received the European Parliament’s Sakharov Prize for freedom of thought.
(SFC,12/18/97, p.C12)
1997 Dec 22, In Algeria attackers stormed Shari hamlet and killed 28 villagers including 15 children and 5 women. The same night 53 villagers, mostly women and children, died in a massacre in the neighboring
Sidi el Antar hamlet. Another 11 had their throats cut in Algiers in the Bainem area.
(SFC,12/26/97, p.A19)
1997 Dec 25, In Algeria Interior Minister Mustapha Benmansour
announced that the ruling National Democratic Rally won 80 of 96 contested seats.
(SFC,12/26/97, p.A19)
1997 Dec 28, In Algeria assailants cut the heads off a man and his 2 sons
in the village of Djelfa. They then kidnapped his wife and 3 young daughters. At Hassi Bahbah an armed group killed a mother and 2 children and left the father in critical condition.
(SFC,12/31/97, p.A8)
1997 Dec 29, In Algeria armed attackers stopped a bus and killed 14 passengers and the driver near Mascara. The bodies were then doused in gasoline and set on fire.
(SFC,12/31/97, p.A8)
1997 Dec 30, In Algeria marauders slit the throats of 34 people in Ain Boucif. Later reports raised the number killed near the city of Relizane to over 400 for this first day of Ramadan.
(SFC,12/31/97, p.A8)(SFC, 1/3/98,
p.A8)
1997 Michael Willis authored "Islamist Challenge In Algeria; A Political History." Hardcover, 448 pages. In recent years, like many countries caught between the tides of fundamentalist religion and secular culture, Algeria has been rocked by
social upheaval, protest, spasmodic violence, and terrorist activity. Middle East scholar Michael Willis here charts the meteoric rise of one of the largest and most powerful Islamist movements in the Muslim world. Pub: New York University Press.
(WWW, 12/19/98)
1998 Jan 3, In Meknassa, Algeria, a 117 people were killed. In Chekala some 200 people were killed. Villagers fled their homes and sought shelter in big-city public squares.
(SFC, 1/7/98,
p.A8)
1998 Jan 8, The EU decided to send a fact-finding mission to Algeria. New reports said 30 more people were killed in the region of Relizane.
(SFC, 1/9/98,
p.A8)
1998 Jan 9, In Algeria another 35 people were killed.
(SFC, 1/12/98, p.A1)
1998 Jan 11, In Algeria 11 more people were killed over the weekend.
(SFC, 1/12/98, p.A1)
1998
Jan 12, In Algeria gangs of men hurled bombs into a mosque in Haouche Sahraoui and a movie theater in Sidi Ahmed and up to 120 people were killed. It coincided with the 6th anniversary of the coup that thwarted the Islamic Salvation Front’s rise to power by cancelled elections. The number killed was reported by local papers to be at least
400.
(SFC, 1/13/98, p.A11)(SFC, 1/14/98, p.C2)(www.tkb.org/Incident.jsp?incID=10201)
1998 Jan 15, Algeria’s government agreed to a revamped EU delegation to seek ways to end the
violence.
(SFC, 1/16/98, p.B4)
1998 Jan 19, European diplomats arrived in Algeria to discuss ways to end the violence after another 16 people were killed in an eastern
province.
(SFC, 1/20/98, p.D2)(WSJ, 1/20/98, p.A1)
1998 Jan 20, The envoys concluded their mission in Algeria as 3 people were killed by a bomb in Ben Aknoun District, another 3
by a bomb in the village of Ziralda. 2 people died from a bomb thrown into a cafe in Boussaken. King Fahd of Saudi Arabia offered his nation’s assistance to end the bloodshed.
(SFC, 1/21/98, p.A8)
1998 Jan 25, In Algeria 20 people had their throats cut in the village of Frenda. Local media reported that 50 people were killed in Kaid Ben Larbi. Ambushes and bombings were widespread as the celebration of Leilat El Qadr (night of destiny) began in recognition of the end of Ramadan. The government reported 29 rebels killed in 3 clashes in the last few
days.
(SFC, 1/26/98, p.A8)(WSJ, 1/26/98, p.A1)
1998 Jan 28, The Algerian military reported 3 more civilian massacres that killed 34 people and said that 18 Muslim rebels were
killed.
(WSJ, 1/29/98, p.A1)
1998 Feb 2, The Algerian military reported that they killed 60 rebels in a weekend offensive. Local media said 17 civilians were killed in 3
massacres in western and southern provinces.
(WSJ, 2/3/98, p.A1)
1998 Feb 15, Armed men killed 32 people in 3 weekend attacks. 17 people had their throats slit in Saida,
Algeria.
(SFC, 2/16/98, p.A11)
1998 Feb 23, A bomb exploded under a passing train near El Affroune, Algeria. Ten people were killed and 25
injured.
(SFC, 2/24/98, p.A10)
1998 Mar 8, In Algeria attackers slit the throats of 6 people on a farm in Haouch Mena, near the home village of Antar Zouabri, believed to be the
leader of the militant Armed Islamic Group.
(SFC, 3/9/98, p.A11)
1998 Mar 30, In Algeria some 123 people including 58 civilians and many children were reported killed in the
west and south in the last 3 days.
(WSJ, 3/30/98, p.A1)
1998 Apr 4, The daily El Moudjahid, a pro-government newspaper, reported that over 200 Islamic militants were killed in
an army-led offensive in the last 12 days in western Algeria.
(SFC, 4/6/98, p.A16)
1998 Apr 6, In Algeria armed groups killed at least 35 civilians in 2 separate attacks. 27
were killed near Oran and 89 near M’Sila.
(SFC, 4/798, p.A16)
1998 Apr 13, In Algeria it was reported that Muslim clerics ruled to allow women raped by Islamic militants to have
abortions.
(WSJ, 4/13/98, p.A1)
1998 Apr 28, In Algeria 40 people were killed in a massacre at a village in Medea
province.
(SFC, 4/29/98, p.A11)
1998 May 26, Police in 5 European countries arrested 74 alleged Algerian separatists. 53 were arrested in France and 21 in Belgium, Germany,
Italy and Switzerland. The idea was to dismantle terrorist networks prior to the World Cup.
(SFC, 5/27/98, p.A10)
1998 Jun 25, In Algeria Lounes Matoub (42), a popular singer
and Berber patriot, was killed near Beni Douala. The Armed Islamic Group later claimed responsibility.
(SFC, 6/27/98, p.A13)(SFC, 7/2/98, p.C2)
1998 Jun 26, Hundreds rioted in
eastern Algeria over the death of Lounes Matoub.
(SFC, 6/27/98, p.A13)
1998 Jul 2, Algeria agreed to allow a UN team to investigate the killings and promised free access to all
sources of information.
(SFC, 7/3/98, p.A16)
1998 Jul 5, Algeria celebrated independence and put into effect a new law making Arabic the country’s sole official language. The
Berber minority struggled to have the government recognize their own language, Tamazight.
(SFC, 6/27/98, p.A13)(SFEC, 7/5/98, p.A18)
1998 Jul 8, In Algeria Khalifi Athmani (24),
a leading member of the Armed Islamic Group (GIA), was killed outside the capital. Athmani’s nom de guerre was Hossein Flicha and he was believed to have led the Sep. ‘97 killings at Beni Messous.
(SFC, 7/10/98, p.A18)
1998 Jul 9, In Algeria a bomb exploded in a flea market in Algiers and killed 10 people and wounded 21.
(SFC, 7/10/98, p.A18)
1998 Jul 26, In Algeria attackers in Khelil in Tlemcen province and in Sidi Abdelmoumen in Saida province killed 20 people in overnight attacks.
(SFC, 7/27/98, p.A10)
1998 Jul 31, In Algeria 6 civilians were killed and 23 wounded in 2 overnight attacks. In Malakou village in Tiaret province 4 villagers had their throats cut and in Algiers a parcel bomb killed 2.
(SFC, 8/1/98,
p.A11)
1998 Aug 31, An explosion in Algiers killed at least 17 people.
(SFC, 9/1/98, p.A9)
1998 Sep 11, Algeria’s Pres. Liamine Zeroual (57) announced that he would step down by Feb 1999 following early elections.
(WSJ, 9/14/98, p.A28)
1998 Sep 13, Algerian security forces said 27 people were killed in Zougala in Ain Defla province. Other sources said 38 people were killed.
(SFC, 9/16/98, p.C2)
1998 Sep 16, Algeria was rebuked for abuses by its security forces by a UN report. Amnesty Int’l. called the report a whitewash.
(WSJ, 9/17/98, p.A1)
1998 Oct 4, US and Algerian navies conducted a small joint search-and-rescue exercise in the Mediterranean.
(SFC, 12/3/98, p.A17)
1998 Oct 30, The UN extended its 460-member peacekeeping force in the Western Sahara over land contested between Morocco and the Algerian-based Polisario Front.
(SFC, 10/31/98,
p.A15)
1998 Nov 29, In Algeria 7 people were killed by suspected Muslim militants on the eve of Ramadan in 4 separate attacks in the western mountains.
(SFC, 11/30/98,
p.B10)
1998 Dec 8, In Algeria 45 people were killed in Tadjena. Armed groups attacked three villages in the area and killed a total of 81 people. Security forces dug up 46 bodies from a well at a farm in Meftah, 10 miles from central
Algiers.
(SFC, 12/10/98, p.A12)(SFC, 12/12/98, p.B1)
1998 Dec 10, In Algeria the death toll for the month reached 200.
(WSJ, 12/11/98, p.A1)
1998 Dec 14, In Algeria Prime Minister Ahmed Ouyahia resigned.
(SFC, 12/15/98,
p.C2)
1998 Dec 27, In Algeria armed groups attacked 2 villages and killed at least 30 people at Khenis Miliana and Ain N'Sour.
(SFC, 12/29/98,
p.A8)
1998 Charles-Robert Ageron authored "Modern Algeria: A History from 1830 to the Present." It was translated by Michael Brett.
(WWW, Amazon,
12/19/98)
1998 The Algerian Salafist Group for Call and Combat (GSPC) was created in a split with the radical Armed Islamic Group, or GIA. The dissidents reportedly were discontent with civilian massacres carried out by the
GIA.
(AP, 5/15/03)
1999 Jan 19, In France 8 men were sentenced to prison for providing arms and logistics to the banned Islamic Salvation Front (FIS) in
Algeria.
(SFC, 1/20/99, p.A10)
1999 Mar 24, In Algeria Muslim rebels slashed the throats of 9 people and kidnapped 2 women near Blida. The victims included a mother and her 2
children.
(SFC, 3/25/99, p.A10)
1999 Apr 14, In Algeria 6 of the 7 presidential candidates withdrew to protest fraud in the early stages of voting. Abdelaziz Bouteflika, the
remaining candidate, was backed by the generals who have ruled since 1962. The vote was meant to end the civil war that has killed 75,000 people since 1992.
(SFC, 4/15/99, p.C3)(WSJ, 4/15/99, p.A1)
1999 Apr 15, Algeria held elections. Abdelaziz Bouteflika was left alone in the race after 6 competitors withdrew over allegations that the vote was rigged. A 60% turnout was reported. Bouteflika said he would turn down the post without a massive turnout and a large majority support.
(SFC, 2/13/99, p.A5)(SFC, 4/16/99, p.A18)
1999 Apr 16, In Algeria protests broke out in Algiers, Tizi Ouzou and Bejaia over the elections. Abdelmalek Sellal, the Interior Minister, said Bouteflika received over 7.4 million votes, 70% of the 10.5
million votes cast. Sellal said 60% of the eligible voters cast ballots, but others said the turnout was under 25%.
(SFC, 4/17/99, p.A10)
1999 May 23, In Algeria men armed with
guns and bombs attacked a village near Medea and killed 10 people.
(SFC, 5/24/99, p.A13)
1999 Jun 6, In Algeria the Islamic Salvation Army (AIS) declared an end to their
guerrilla struggle. The 2,000 member group had been observing a cease-fire since 1997.
(SFC, 6/7/99, p.A11)
1999 Jun 11, In Algeria 14 people were killed by an armed group in
Sidi Naamane.
(SFC, 6/12/99, p.C1)
1999 Jun 26, Algeria’s Pres. Bouteflika announced a plan for thousands of political prisoners to be granted amnesty in a plan for "civil
concord." The proposed amnesty law excluded those with "blood on their hands."
(SFC, 7/2/99, p.A12)
1999 Jun 27, In Algeria the president raised the death toll in the 7-year
civil war against rebel groups to 100,000.
(WSJ, 6/28/99, p.A1)
1999 Jul 11, The senate approved Pres. Bouteflika's amnesty law for the Islamist rebels. It still required voter
approval.
(SFC, 7/12/99, p.A9)
1999 Jul 20, Algerian government sources said rebels had cut the throats of 9 villagers in Medea
province.
(SFC, 7/21/99, p.C2)
1999 Aug 15, In Algeria an armed group killed 29 people near Beni Ounif.
(SFC, 8/16/99, p.A10)
1999 Sep 15, Algeria held a referendum on Pres. Bouteflika's amnesty law. Voters endorsed the plan.
(SFC, 9/15/99, p.C3)(SFC, 9/17/99,
p.D6)
1999 Nov 20, In Algeria some 20 people were killed in a clash between guerrillas and security forces south of Algiers.
(SFC, 11/23/99,
p.A15)
1999 Nov 22, Abdelkader Hachani (43), a leader of the Islamic Salvation Front who spoke for peace and reconciliation, was assassinated in Algiers.
(SFC, 11/23/99,
p.A15)
1999 Dec 2, In Algeria 16 alleged Islamic militants were killed by government soldiers near Chlef, 148 miles west of Algiers.
(SFC, 12/16/99,
p.C2)
1999 Dec 11, In Algeria 15 people were massacred outside Blida. Many of the victims were burned alive in a van.
(SFC, 12/15/99,
p.B3)
1999 Dec 13, In Algeria militants attacked and killed 11 nomads in the desert town of Taghit, 620 miles southwest of Algiers.
(SFC, 12/15/99,
p.B3)
1999 Dec 14, In Seattle Ahmed Ressam (32), an Algerian, was arrested after crossing the border at Port Angeles from Canada with a car trunk with over 150 pounds of bomb-making materials that included 200 pounds of urea, timing devices and a
bottle of RDX, cyclotrimethylene trinitramine. Canadian authorities later issued an arrest warrant for Abdelmajed Dahoumane for possessing or making explosives. Dahoumane was arrested in Algeria In Oct, 2000. In 2001 Ressam admitted that he planned to detonate a bomb at the LA Int’l. Airport. Mokhtar Haouari provided fake ID and $3,000 to Ressam. Haouari was sentenced to 24 years in prison in
2002. In 2005 Ressam was sentenced to 22 years in prison.
(SFC, 12/18/99, p.A1)(SFC, 12/20/99, p.D3)(SFC, 12/25/99, p.A3)(SFC, 12/30/99, p.A5)(SFC, 12/7/00, p.C10)(SFC, 5/30/01, p.A5)(SFC, 1/17/02, p.A12)(SFC, 7/28/05, p.A3)
1999 Dec 15, In Algeria suspected Islamic militants killed 11 government soldiers and wounded 22 others near Chlef, 148 miles west of Algiers.
(SFC, 12/16/99, p.C2)
1999 Dec 22, An Algerian accused of trying to smuggle nitroglycerin and other bomb-making materials into the United States from Canada pleaded innocent in Seattle to all five counts of a federal indictment. Ahmed Ressam was convicted in April 2001 of terrorist conspiracy and eight other
charges.
(AP, 12/22/04)
1999 Dec 22, In Algeria a 5.8 earthquake struck near Oran and at least 20 people were killed and 75 injured.
(SFC, 12/23/99,
p.C7)
1999 Dec 24, In Algeria Islamic militants killed 29 people at a roadblock near Khemis Miliana, some 50 miles west of Algiers.
(SFC, 12/25/99,
p.A14)
1999 Algeria, Libya and Tunisia agreed to share the northwest Sahara aquifer system (NWSAS).
(Econ, 10/9/10,
p.87)(http://tinyurl.com/25w5boa)
1999 France finally called the Algerian conflict a "war." Prior to this France referred only to operations to "maintain order.”
(AP, 11/29/05)
2000 Jan 11, Algeria’s Pres. Bouteflika gave a blanket pardon to all members of the Islamic Salvation Army 2 days before a deadline for all Islamic militants to lay down their arms.
(SFC, 1/12/00,
p.A11)
2000 Jan 13, In Algeria the deadline for the surrender of Islamic militants expired.
(SFC, 1/14/00, p.A14)
2000 Jan 29, In Arris, Algeria, 11 community guards were killed by Islamic militants of the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat led by Hassan Hattab.
(SFC, 2/1/00, p.B2)
2000 Feb 6, In Algeria army troops killed 27 Islamic militants. 23 were killed near Sidi Bel Abbes and 4 along with one government soldier near Ain Defla.
(SFC, 2/8/00, p.a14)
2000 Feb 28, In Algeria an armed group massacred 20 people, shepherds and their families, near Brezina.
(SFC, 2/29/00, p.A12)
2000 Feb 29, The Algerian army began a crack down on Islamic militants following the massacre of 25 shepherds near Brezina. Over the next 3 weeks they killed 35 militants around El-Bayadh and Ghardaia.
(SFC, 3/22/00,
p.A12)
2000 Nov 27, The Muslim holiday of Ramadan began.
(SFC, 11/28/00, p.A2)
2000 Dec 9, In Algeria 5 soldiers and an assailant were killed in an ambush near Tissemsilt. Another 3 local guards were killed in Boghar and the attacks continued the next day.
(SFC, 12/12/00,
p.B2)
2000 Dec 12, Ethiopia and Eritrea signed a peace pact in Algiers. A 4,200 UN peacekeeping force was set to patrol the border. Pres. Zenawi and Pres. Afwerki signed the accord, which established a commission to mark the 620-mile border, exchange
prisoners, returned displaced people and hear claims for war damages.
(SFC, 12/4/00, p.E2)(WSJ, 12/5/00, p.A1)(SFC, 12/13/00, p.B3)
2000 Dec 16, In Algeria armed gunmen shot to
death 15 students and a security guard at the Lycee Technique of Medea boarding school.
(SFC, 12/18/00, p.E6)
2000 Dec 20, The media reported that violent deaths during Ramadan
had reached 250.
(SFC, 12/21/00, p.C2)
2001 Jan 9, In Algeria 4 Russian engineers went mushroom picking in the forest of Edough and were found with their throats cut 2 days
later.
(SFC, 1/10/01, p.A9)
2001 Jan 17, Attackers killed a dozen people at a roadblock west of Algiers and shot to death 5 people at a café south of the
city.
(SFC, 1/20/01, p.A11)
2001 Jan 18, In Algeria 23 shepherds and farmers were killed in the Dahra region by armed
assailants.
(SFC, 1/20/01, p.A11)
2001 Jan 19, In Algeria gunmen killed 11 family members in Medea.
(SSFC, 1/21/01, p.D4)
2001 Jan 28, In Algeria an armed group killed 2 dozen people in Oued Fares in the Chlef region. 16 of the dead were children.
(SFC, 1/29/01,
p.A14)
2001 Mar 18, In Algeria weekend attacks by suspected Islamic militants left 5 people dead and 23 injured.
(SFC, 3/20/01,
p.A11)
2001 Apr 18, In Algeria a Berber teenager died while being held in a police station.
(SFC, 6/20/01, p.A9)
2001 May 3, In Algiers thousands of protesters demonstrated against what they called a government crackdown on ethnic Berbers.
(SFC, 5/4/01, p.A14)
2001 Jun 14, In Algeria hundreds of thousands of people protested in Algiers over economic and political issues and 2 journalists were killed in clashes with riot police.
(SFC, 6/15/01,
p.A18)
2001 Jun 18, In Algeria’s Kabyle region 3 police officers were killed and dozens injured in riots provoked by the April 18 death of a Berber teenager in a police station.
(SFC, 6/20/01, p.A9)
2001 Jun 19, Algeria banned protests in the capital following 2 months of unrest that had left at least 55 dead.
(WSJ, 6/20/01,
p.A1)
2001 Aug 12, In Algeria assailants attacked a convoy of farmers and slashed the throats of 17 people in Oule-d-Bouaza.
(SFC, 8/15/01,
p.A7)
2001 Aug 29, In Algiers a bomb exploded in the Casbah and 34 people were injured.
(SFC, 8/30/01, p.A12)
2001 Sep 26, Spain detained 6 Algerians with alleged links to Osama bin Laden and a group planning attacks on US targets in Europe.
(SFC, 9/27/01, p.A3)
2001
Sep 26, In Algeria suspected Islamic militants killed 22 people in Larbaa. 12 of the dead were killed while celebrating a wedding.
(SFC, 9/28/01, p.D6)
2001
Oct 4, Algeria’s Pres. Bouteflika promised to recognize the Berber language, compensate victims of police brutality and prosecute police involved in brutality.
(WSJ, 10/5/01, p.A1)
2001
Nov 11, A 36-hour storm hit Algeria and 337 people were reported killed. It was the worst flooding in 20 years. The death toll reached 580.
(SFC, 11/12/01, p.A12)(WSJ, 11/12/01, p.A1)(SFC, 11/17/01, p.A24)
2002 Feb 9, In Algeria security forces killed Antar Zouabri, head of the Armed Islamic Group, and 2 other insurgents in Boufarik.
(SSFC, 2/10/02, p.A14)
2002 Apr 1, In Algeria Islamic militants killed 21 government soldiers in Moulay Larbi, 280 miles SW of the capital.
(SFC, 4/3/02, p.A7)
2002 May 30, In Algeria legislative elections for the 380-seat parliament were held. 2 key parties planned to boycott as did many ethnic Berbers of the Kabylia region. Islamic militants massacred 23 nomads. Berber riots took place. The national Liberation Front of PM Ali Benflis won 199 of 389 seats. The
turnout was just 46%.
(SFC, 5/30/02, p.A7)(SFC, 5/31/02, p.A12)(SFC, 6/1/02, p.A12)
2002 Jun 11, In Algeria alleged Islamic militants opened fire on a bus, killing 11 people.
Ten others were wounded.
(AP, 6/12/02)
2002 Jun 22, In Algeria shootings and bombings blamed on Islamic militants have killed seven people and wounded 35 others over the last
two days.
(AP, 6/22/02)
2002 Jul 5, A bomb ripped through an open-air market in Larba, 15 miles SE of Algiers on Algeria's independence day, killing 49 people and wounding 36
others.
(AP, 7/5/02)(SFC, 7/6/02, p.A6)(AP, 7/7/02)
2002 Aug 16, In Algeria Islamic insurgents reportedly killed 26 people, including women and children, in a rural western
hamlet.
(AP, 8/16/02)
2002 Aug 24, It was reported that Algerian elite soldiers, backed by artillery and helicopters, killed 16 suspected Islamist rebels during a week-long
operation against guerrillas east of Algiers.
(Reuters, 8/24/02)
2002 Oct 10, In Algeria Prime Minister Ali Benflis' party swept local elections, with voting in the restive
Berber region marred by a boycott, riots and attacks on police officers. The National Liberation Front gained control of 668 out of 1,541 town councils and took 43 of 48 district councils.
(AP, 10/12/02)
2002 Oct 24, In Algeria attackers killed 21 members of the same family, including a three-month old baby, in a massacre that bore the hallmarks of Islamic extremists.
(AP, 10/25/02)
2002 Nov 23, An Algerian militant group suspected of links to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda killed nine soldiers in violent clashes east of Algiers. Four police officers were killed 2 days earlier in Bourmedes.
(AP,
11/24/02)
2002 Dec 3, In western Algeria 6 soldiers and 6 suspected Islamic militants were killed during fighting in the Stamboul forest.
(AP,
12/8/02)
2002 Dec 12, In western Algeria a bomb exploded at an outdoor market, killing four people and wounding 16.
(AP,
12/12/02)
2003 Jan 4, In Algeria Islamic militants (GSPC) ambushed a military convoy in the northeast village of Theniet el-Abed. 43 soldiers were killed and 19 wounded.
(AP,
1/5/03)
2003 Jan 5, In Algeria rebels killed 13 people form 2 families near the capital in Zabana. The Armed Islamic Group was suspected.
(AP,
1/5/03)
2003 Jan 29, The body of Abdelmalek Benbara (41), a member of the Algerian prime minister's party reported missing Jan 17, was found in a car in Paris.
(AP,
1/30/03)
2003 Feb 25, Striking government workers brought much of Algeria, but not its lucrative oil fields, to a halt, with no public transport and few flights. Suspected Islamic extremists fired machine guns at cars at a roadblock, killing 12
people.
(AP, 2/25/03)(AP, 2/26/03)
2003 Feb 26, In Algeria it was reported that more than 7,000 people were believed missing at the hands of security forces during the
1990s.
(AP, 2/26/03)
2003 Mar 6, An Air Algerie Boeing 737 jet crashed killing 102 passengers and crew in the southern Algerian province of Tamanrasset. At least 1 person
survived.
(AP, 3/6/03)(SFC, 3/7/03, p.A14)
2003 Apr 4, In Algeria 8 Austrian tourists were reported missing. Searchers using camels and helicopters equipped with heat-seeking
sensors were already scouring the Sahara Desert for 21 tourists, mostly Germans, who vanished in Algeria over the past six weeks.
(AP, 4/4/03)(SSFC, 4/6/03, p.A8)
2003 May 2,
Mohammed Dib, novelist and poet, died outside Paris. He was one of Algeria's best known writers but had left the country for France in 1959.
(SFC, 5/6/03, p.A16)
2003 May 6, Six
Algerian soldiers were killed when suspected Islamic fighters bombed their vehicle and sprayed the survivors with gunfire.
(AP, 5/7/03)
2003 May 13, Algerian army commandos
freed 17 European tourists kidnapped in the Sahara Desert by an al-Qaeda-linked terror group, the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat. 9 captors were killed and 15 hostages remained.
(AP, 5/14/03)(Econ, 9/3/05, p.44)
2003 May 21, In Algeria a 6.7 earthquake struck near Algiers. More than 2,200 people were killed and thousands injured. Thenia, 40 miles east of Algiers, was worst hit.
(SFC, 5/22/03, p.A1)(AP, 5/25/03)(SFC, 5/27/03,
p.A12)
2003 May 24, Furious crowds hurled debris and insults at Algeria's president Abdelaziz Bouteflika when he visited a town devastated by a deadly earthquake.
(AP,
5/24/04)
2003 Jun 30, In Algeria a military plane slammed into a house west of the capital, killing at least 12 people, including women and children on the ground.
(AP,
6/30/03)
2003 Jul 4, In Algeria suspected Islamic militants killed Lawmaker Rabah Radja and three other people at a roadblock east of the capital.
(AP,
7/5/03)
2003 Aug 18, A six-month ordeal for 14 European tourists kidnapped by Islamic extremists while on desert safaris in Algeria has ended with their release to officials in neighboring Mali.
(AP, 8/19/03)
2003 Sep 27, The Algerian army reported that it had killed 150 armed Islamic militants in a two-week operation in the eastern foothills of this north African
country.
(AP, 9/27/03)
2003 Nov 27, Talal al-Rasheed, a prominent Saudi poet, was shot to death by attackers while on a hunting trip in
Algeria.
(AP, 11/30/03)
2004 Jan 19, In Algeria an explosion at a liquefied natural gas (LNG) complex in the port city of Skikda killed 23 and left 74 people
injured.
(AP, 1/20/04)(WSJ, 5/14/04, p.A1)
2004 Apr 8, Algeria held elections seen as a turning point toward democracy for the North African nation after a bloody Islamic
insurgency. President Abdelaziz Bouteflika was re-elected with 83% of the vote, but his challenger cried foul and promised to appeal.
(AP, 4/9/04)(SFC, 4/10/04, p.A3)
2004 Apr
22, Algerian officials said the Salafists, a rebel group linked to al Qaeda, were in surrender talks to end a 12-year Islamic insurgency.
(WSJ, 4/23/04, p.A1)
2004 May 14,
Algerian officials reported that 13 of the countries 48 provinces were infested with swarms of desert locusts.
(ST, 5/14/04, p.A1)
2004 Jun 2, In eastern Algeria insurgents
ambushed an Algerian military convoy night, killing at least 10 soldiers and wounding 45 others.
(AP, 6/2/04)
2004 Jun 5, French engineering giant Alstom said a consortium it
was leading had signed an 88-million-euro ($107 mil) contract for work on three railway lines in the suburbs of Algiers.
(AP, 6/6/04)
2004 Jun 17, Algerian troops killed one of
North Africa's most-wanted terrorist leaders, who allied his group with Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida network. Nabil Sahraoui (also known as Abu Ibrahim Mustapha), one of his key right-hand men and a "good number" of other Salafist lieutenants were killed in a military sweep.
(AP, 6/20/04)(SFC, 6/21/04,
p.A6)
2004 Aug 11, In Algeria an appeals court upheld a two-year prison term for one of Algeria's best known journalists in a case seen by many as a pretext to crush press freedom.
(AP, 8/12/04)
2004 Sep 6, Algeria's largest Islamic rebel group with ties to al Qaeda said it has appointed a new chief, known as an explosives expert, as it tries to regroup following the loss of key leaders in recent gun battles
with authorities.
(Reuters, 9/6/04)
2004 Sep 29, In northern Norway an Algerian asylum seeker on a commuter plane attacked both pilots and a passenger with an ax as the aircraft
was landing.
(AP, 9/29/04)
2004 Oct 22, Suspected Algerian Islamic militants killed 16 people near Medea in the first attack on civilians since the start of the holy month of
Ramadan.
(AP, 10/23/04)
2004 Oct 25, Suspected Islamic militants decapitated three soldiers in Algeria in an upsurge of violence during the Muslim holy month of
Ramadan.
(AP, 10/27/04)
2004 Oct 28, Amar Saifi, one of North Africa's most wanted Islamic militant leaders, was taken into custody in Algeria. The No. 2 leader of the Salafists
is accused in the kidnapping of 32 European tourists last year.
(Reuters, 10/29/04)(WSJ, 10/29/04, p.A1)
2004 Nov 4, Algerian Islamic rebels killed two policemen in the latest
attack during the holy month of Ramadan.
(Reuters, 11/5/04)
2004 Nov 13, Severe storms sank one ship and drove two aground near Algiers port, killing three seamen. About 20
sailors remained missing.
(Reuters, 11/14/04)
2004 Dec 11, Said Barkat, Algeria’s Agriculture Minister, said almost 170 million euros (225 million dollars) have been spent since
2003 dealing with locust infestation of farmland.
(AP, 12/12/04)
2004 Dec 16, Farouk Ksentini, an Algerian government-appointed official, said security forces members are
believed responsible for the deaths of 5,200 civilians who disappeared during a decade-long struggle with Islamic rebels and should face justice.
(AP, 12/17/04)
2004 Dec 25,
Algeria's Energy Minister Chakib Khelil said exports of oil and gas will bring in over 31 billion dollars (24 billion euros) in 2004.
(AP, 12/26/04)
2004 Dec 26, In eastern
Algeria a gas explosion killed 17 people and injured at least 40 others when a residential block collapsed.
(Reuters, 12/26/04)
2005 Jan 1, Algeria was forecast for 8.2% annual
GDP growth with a population at 33.9 million and GDP per head at $2,360.
(Econ, 1/8/05, p.93)
2005 Jan 3, The Algerian Interior Ministry said security forces had arrested the
leader of the Armed Islamic Group, the radical insurgency movement responsible for brutal village massacres several years ago, and killed his replacement. The arrest of Nourredine Boudiafi and the killing of Chaabane Younes were near-fatal blows to the seriously weakened GIA, as the movement is known. Islamic extremists killed 18 people in an ambush of an army convoy south of the capital
Algiers.
(AP, 1/4/05)(AFP, 1/5/05)
2005 Jan 16, Algeria's government signed an agreement to end years of conflict with the restive Berber minority, pledging to accept
long-standing demands including greater recognition of the Berber language.
(AP, 1/16/05)
2005 Mar 12, Algeria's minister for energy and mines said OPEC has reached its
production limit, and trying to stretch output by one million barrels per day isn't likely to lower oil prices.
(AP, 3/12/05)
2005 Apr 13, Algerian Islamic militants killed five
people, including three security force members, and injured eight others in attacks ahead of an expected general amnesty.
(Reuters, 4/14/05)
2005 May 17, In Algeria 3 soldiers
and 2 militants were killed during an air and ground offensive by government forces against Islamic rebels in the mountains east of the capital.
(Reuters, 5/19/05)
2005 Jun 14,
A senior US military official said up to 20 percent of suicide car bombers in Iraq are from Algeria, a sign of growing cooperation between Islamic extremists in northern Africa and like-minded Iraqis.
(AP, 6/14/05)
2005 Jun 25, Algerian militant Amari Saifi, a leader of the al-Qaida-linked Salafist Group for Call and Combat, was sentenced in absentia to life in prison for helping to create a terror group. He was considered the mastermind of the 2003 kidnapping of 32 European tourists in the Sahara desert.
(AP, 6/26/05)
2005 Jun, The Trans-Sahara Counter-Terrorism Initiative began operations. The US funded plan intended to provide military equipment and development aid to 9 north-east African countries considered fertile ground for
Muslim militant groups. Participating countries included Algeria, Chad, Mali, Mauritania, Morocco, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, and Tunisia.
(SFC, 12/27/05, p.A1)
2005 Jul 21, The
chief of Algeria's diplomatic mission, Ali Belaroussi, and fellow envoy Azzedine Belkadi were seized at gunpoint from the upscale Mansour district of western Baghdad. In an Internet statement 2 days later al-Qaida in Iraq said it was responsible.
(AP, 7/23/05)
2005 Jul 26, Al-Qaida in Iraq said it had condemned to death two Algerian diplomats who were abducted in Baghdad. A video made public showed the men blindfolded and in captivity.
(AP,
7/26/05)
2005 Aug 14, Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika unveiled a draft charter for peace and national reconciliation that will be put to a referendum on September 29.
(AFP, 8/14/05)
2005 Aug 19, In Algeria Islamic militants killed six hikers in the forests of Ravin Bleu in the Batna region, 530 kilometers east of Algiers.
(AP,
8/21/05)
2005 Sep 22, In Algeria Al Qaeda-aligned Islamic militants killed 10 people, including seven soldiers, in separate ambushes. The ambushes were blamed on the GSPC, which is split on whether to support a September 29 referendum on a partial
amnesty in exchange for laying down their arms.
(AP, 9/24/05)
2005 Sep 29, Algerians voted on a peace plan the government says will help turn the page on a brutal Islamic
insurgency that left an estimated 120,000 dead. Critics, however, say the plan will whitewash past crimes.
(AP, 9/29/05)
2005 Sep 30, Official referendum results showed
Algerians overwhelmingly approved a peace plan that provides a broad amnesty for Islamic extremists, but which critics denounced as a whitewash of crimes committed during a bloody internal war. The Charter on Peace and National Reconciliation granted a broad amnesty to militants and offered some financial compensation to families of at least 6,000
“disappeared.”
(AP, 9/30/05)(Econ, 10/8/05, p.56)
2005 Oct 1, A banned Algerian Islamic group with ties to al-Qaida rejected an amnesty for Islamic militants, saying in a
statement on its Web site that it had no need for a government peace plan.
(AP, 10/1/05)
2005 Nov 12, Africa Union leaders from Algeria, Ethiopia, Ghana, Nigeria, South Africa
and Senegal met in Abuja for a 2-day summit titled: "Africa and the challenges of the global order: Desirability of union government," with the leaders discussing the broad principles of integration.
(AFP, 11/12/05)
2005 Dec 20, In Algeria the facade of a dilapidated hotel collapsed in Algiers, killing eight people and injuring 21 others.
(AP, 12/20/05)
2006 Jan 11, Samir Ait Mohamed, an Algerian-born man accused of helping in the plot to bomb the Los Angeles airport on the millennium, was quietly deported from Canada after years fighting for refugee status there.
(AP,
1/13/06)
2006 Feb 12, In Algiers Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld met with senior government leaders on what Pentagon officials said they believe to be the first visit to Algeria by a US defense
secretary.
(AP, 2/12/06)
2006 Feb 14, The UNHCR said the floods last week left more than 50,000 Sahrawi refugees homeless, destroying up to half of the mud-brick houses in their
camps of Awserd, Smara and Laayoune in the Tindouf region of western Algeria. Tents, blankets and other emergency aid were being rushed to the camps in the Algerian Sahara hit by rare torrential rains.
(AP, 2/15/06)
2006 Mar 1, Algeria said it will release more than 2,000 Islamist ex-fighters soon under an amnesty to promote reconciliation after years of conflict in the oil-exporting country.
(Reuters,
3/2/06)
2006 Mar 4, Algeria began releasing former Islamist fighters from prison, fulfilling an amnesty aimed at promoting national reconciliation after more than a decade of conflict.
(Reuters, 3/4/06)
2006 Mar 5, In Algeria a young man injured three police officers and was then killed by a policeman in Zeralda, a suburb of Algiers, triggering riots in which youths attacked public
buildings.
(AFP, 3/6/06)
2006 Mar 11, Algeria signed a $7.5 billion deal with visiting Pres. Putin for Russian fighter aircraft, tanks and anti-aircraft
missiles.
(Econ, 2/10/07, p.45)(http://mdb.cast.ru/mdb/2-2006/item3/item2/)
2006 Mar 18, In Algeria Farouk Ksentini, the head of the government human rights body said up to
200,000 Algerians have died in a 15-year Islamic insurgency.
(AFP, 3/18/06)
2006 Mar 21, An earthquake hit the northeast Algerian town of Laalam east of Algiers killing at least
four people and injuring 53.
(AFP, 3/21/06)
2006 Apr 7, In southern Algeria gunmen attacked a convoy of customs agents traveling through the desert, killing 13 and wounding
eight others.
(AP, 4/7/06)
2006 May 13, In Algeria security forces found 28 bodies, most of them children, in a secluded cave used as a hideout by an Algerian Islamic militant
group.
(AP, 5/14/06)
2006 May 24, Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika appointed Abdelaziz Belkhadem as the country's prime
minister.
(AFP, 5/24/06)
2006 Jun 24, Algeria’s state news reported that Algeria had agreed with Canada for early repayment of its debt totaling some $255 million, the eighth
such accord with creditor countries since mid-May. Algeria has signed accords covering 3.25 billion of an estimated $8 billion. Apart from Canada, they cover France (1.6 billion), Portugal (20 million), the Netherlands (45 million), Belgium (225 million), Denmark (54.3 million), Austria (396 million) and Spain (690 million). Agreements would be concluded this week with Sweden, for $11 million,
and Finland for 15 million. The main creditors still outstanding include Italy, which is owed $1.7 billion, and the United States, 1.2 billion.
(AFP, 6/24/06)
2006 Jun 25,
Algerian soldiers launched a major assault on a hideout of Islamic insurgents, killing 19 militants, including the regional emir, Merouani (40).
(AP, 6/26/06)
2006 Jun 28,
Published remarks by Algeria’s Interior Minister Noureddine Yazid Zerhouni said about 200 Islamist fighters have so far surrendered under an amnesty aimed at ending years of violence.
(AP, 6/28/06)
2006 Sep 14, Current and former French officials specializing in terrorism said that an al-Qaida alliance with the Algerian Salafist Group for Call and Combat, known by its French initials GSPC, was cause for concern. Al-Qaida's No. 2, Ayman al-Zawahri, announced the "blessed union" in a video posted this week on the Internet to mark the fifth anniversary of
the Sept. 11 attacks in the United States.
(AP, 9/15/06)
2006 Oct 2, Italian police said they had smashed an Algerian Islamic fundamentalist cell that gave logistical support to
suspected militants in Algeria.
(Reuters, 10/2/06)
2006 Oct 15, Algerian Energy Minister Chehib Khelil said that the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries will announce
a 1 million barrel a day cut in crude production during a meeting in Qatar.
(AP, 10/15/06)
2006 Oct 30, In Algeria 3 people were killed and 24 wounded in near-simultaneous truck
bomb attacks overnight on two police stations in Reghaia town, 30 km (20 miles) east of the capital, and the eastern Algiers suburb of Dergana. Witnesses called it the most elaborate assault by Islamist rebels in several years.
(Reuters, 10/30/06)
2006 Nov 2, Algerian rebels shot dead 8 soldiers in an ambush in the heaviest reported government losses for seven months in the north African country's lingering political violence.
(Reuters,
11/4/06)
2006 Nov 9, In Algeria 7 members of the security forces were killed in an ambush during a cleanup operation in a forest used as a hideout by Islamic extremists, and 13 others were injured, four of them
seriously.
(AP, 11/10/06)
2006 Nov 15, Algeria agreed to repay ahead of schedule its total debt to Germany, 372 million dollars, due to the oil-rich country's surge in revenues.
Algeria will invest 70% of the saved interest, about 67 million dollars, 52 million euros, through 2011, in a water supply project for the western city of Tlemcen and the Maghnia-Ghazaouet region.
(AFP, 11/15/06)
2006 Nov 18, Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika appealed for private investment in the North African country as he opened the 10th congress of Arab businessmen in Algiers.
(AFP, 11/18/06)
2006 Nov 28, Ten suspected Islamist militants were killed in clashes with the Algerian army, which was conducting sweeps in remote mountainous regions.
(AP, 11/30/06)
2006 Dec 10, In Algeria assailants hurled a bomb and shot at two vehicles transporting employees in the town of Bouchaoui, 9 miles west of Algiers. The Salafist Group for Call and Combat, known by its French acronym GSPC, claimed responsibility for the
attack.
(AP, 12/11/06)
2006 Algeria’s state of emergency was prolonged for a 14th year.
(Econ, 9/2/06,
p.44)
2007 Jan 26, The last Islamic militant group still fighting in the 16-year-old civil war against Algeria's government said in an Internet statement posted that it had changed its name to highlight its allegiance to the Al-Qaeda network. The
Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC) said that it was changing its name to the Al-Qaeda Organization in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) on the orders of Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.
(AFP, 1/26/07)(Econ, 8/18/07, p.38)
2007 Feb 13, In Algeria 7 bombs went off almost simultaneously, killing six people east of the capital Algiers in an elaborate assault by suspected Islamist rebels. The Salafist group Call and Command claimed responsibility under its new name: al Qaeda in Islamic North Africa.
(Reuters, 2/13/07)(SFC, 2/14/07, p.A3)
2007 Feb 19, An official said Algeria has translated the Koran into the Berber language, Tamazight, for the first time, to promote Islam
among a community that has long campaigned for more language and cultural rights.
(Reuters, 2/19/07)
2007 Mar 3, In Algeria 4 workers from Russia and Ukraine and three Algerians
were killed in a bomb attack on a bus near the town of Ain Defla, south of the capital Algiers.
(AFP, 3/4/07)
2007 Mar 4, In Algeria suspected Islamic militants attacked a
police checkpoint with rocket-propelled grenades and machine guns, killing five officers and wounding three others.
(AP, 3/4/07)
2007 Mar 10, A flash flood killed six people in
southern Algeria when torrential rains caused wadis to overflow, while high winds brought down trees and walls.
(AFP, 3/10/07)
2007 Mar 22, Rafik Khalifa (40), the head of a
bank at the centre of Algeria's biggest corruption scandal, was sentenced in absentia to life in prison. Khalifa has been exiled in London since 2003, when hundreds of millions of dollars was discovered missing from the Khalifa Bank. Algeria has been seeking his extradition. The exiled former governor of the central bank, Abdelawahab Keramane, and five others were also sentenced in abstentia to
20 years in prison.
(AFP, 3/22/07)
2007 Apr 4, In Algeria an international desertification conference closed with a call (dubbed the Algiers Appeal) to all African countries to
ratify the Kyoto Protocol, to help slow the rapid expansion of deserts on the continent.
(AFP, 4/4/07)
2007 Apr 7, Suspected Islamist militants opened fire on a military patrol
in northwestern Algeria, starting a gunbattle that left nine soldiers and six attackers dead.
(AP, 4/8/07)
2007 Apr 11, In Algeria bombs heavily damaged the prime minister's
office in Algiers and a police station. Three bomb attacks killed 20 people and wounded 222.
(AP, 4/11/07)(AP, 4/12/07)(AFP, 3/13/12)
2007 Apr 16, Hassan Hattab, the
founder of the group that claimed responsibility for last week's deadly Algiers bombings, called on militants to put down their weapons under a government amnesty and stop trying to turn Algeria into a "second Iraq." Hattab made the comments in a published letter to President Abdelaziz Bouteflika.
(Reuters,
4/16/07)
2007 May 8, Algeria’s El-Watan newspaper reported that authorities have arrested 5 people believed responsible for organizing deadly terrorist attacks last month.
(AP,
5/8/07)
2007 May 10-2007 May 11, Seven Islamic extremists and two members of Algeria's security forces were killed in the violent run-up to parliamentary elections.
(AFP,
5/12/07)
2007 May 12, In eastern Algeria 6 armed Islamist extremists were killed in Kabylia, in clashes with the military in the run-up to legislative elections. Algeria's official news agency APS said Algerian security forces had arrested three
Libyan Islamic militants planning to join al Qaeda's north African wing. Algerian soldiers killed four armed militants in a clash near the village of Ghoumrassa.
(AFP, 5/13/07)(AP, 5/13/07)
2007
May 13, Al Qaeda-linked Algerian rebels facing stepped up assaults by the army set off a bomb killing three soldiers including an officer east of Algiers.
(Reuters, 5/14/07)
2007 May 14, Algerian troops, stepping up assaults on al Qaeda's north African wing after suicide bombings last month, killed 13 Islamist fighters east of Algiers.
(Reuters, 5/15/07)
2007 May 16, In Algeria bombs killed a police officer and wounded five other people on the eve of parliamentary elections, prompting fears of renewed Islamist extremism.
(AP,
5/16/07)
2007 May 17, Algerians, shaken by al-Qaida-claimed suicide bombings and dealing with a tough economy, slowly trickled to vote in legislative elections under tight police security.
(AP, 5/17/07)
2007 May 18, Algeria’s Interior Ministry announced that the National Liberation Front party, which has dominated Algerian political life since independence in 1962, kept its leading position in parliamentary
elections.
(AP, 5/18/07)
2007 May 19, Algerian official news reported that security forces had dismantled a suspected support network linked to twin terror bombings last month
in the capital that killed 30 people.
(AP, 5/20/07)
2007 Jun 4, In Algeria Hassan Hattab, fugitive founder of the extremist Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC), was
sentenced in absentia to life in prison for setting up an armed terrorist group by a court in Tizi-Ouzou.
(AFP, 6/6/07)
2007 Jun 6, In Algeria one person was killed and 8
injured in a powerful bomb blast in the Kabylie region.
(AP, 6/6/07)
2007 Jun 9, Officials from Algeria and the US signed a protocol agreement which will pave the way towards
closer cooperation on civilian nuclear energy.
(AFP, 6/9/07)
2007 Jun 10, Algerian security forces said they have arrested 13 minors and dismantled a suspected training camp
used by an al-Qaeda linked group east of the capital Algiers.
(AFP, 6/10/07)
2007 Jun 19, The Algerian government approved a plan to set up an academy of the Amazigh language,
spoken by the Berber minority, many of whom live in Kabylie in the mountainous north of the country.
(AFP, 6/20/07)
2007 Jun 22, Algerian soldiers shot and killed six armed
Islamists near Algiers, while two guards died in homemade bomb blasts at a gas pipeline southeast of the capital.
(AFP, 6/24/07)
2007 Jun, Algeria began construction on a $425
million hybrid power plant at Hassi R’mel. It will use sun and natural gas to generate 150 megawatts, 25 of which will come from solar panels, beginning in 2010. Solar panels were already in use for 18 off-grid Sahara villages.
(SSFC, 8/12/07, p.A25)
2007 Jul 6, EU officials said they have asked Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia to join patrols of Europe's border control agency in a bid to stop massive clandestine immigration.
(AFP,
7/6/07)
2007 Jul 7, A court in Algeria's Kabylie region sentenced Said Sahnoun, a correspondent for newspapers in sub-Saharan Africa, to 10 years in prison for spying for Israel.
(Reuters, 7/8/07)
2007 Jul 7, Algeria's state oil and gas company and KBR Inc., a former Halliburton Co. subsidiary, signed a $2.88 billion deal for a liquefied natural gas plant.
(AP,
7/7/07)
2007 Jul 11, In Algeria a suicide bomber blew up a refrigerated truck loaded with explosives at a military encampment outside Algiers, killing 10 soldiers and wounding 35.
(AP, 7/11/07)
2007 Jul 14, In Algeria about 50 members of the Al Qaeda Organization in the Islamic Maghreb attacked two police stations in Yaourene village in Tizi Ouzou province, about 100 km (60 miles) east of Algiers. The
Algerian army halted the attack and killed 4 in the northeastern Kabylie region.
(Reuters, 7/15/07)
2007 Jul 21, Security sources said a week-long offensive by Algerian special
forces in a mountainous area east of Algiers has killed between eight and 11 Islamist militants.
(AFP, 7/21/07)
2007 Jul 22, Niger's PM Seyni Oumarou and military chiefs met
neighboring Algeria's President Abdelaziz Bouteflika to discuss cross-border cooperation against Tuareg-led rebels in Niger's desert north.
(AP, 7/22/07)
2007 Jul 25, Miguel
Angel Moratinos, Spain’s Foreign Minister arrived in Algeria on a visit aimed at strengthening cooperation in energy and sorting out a row with Madrid's top gas supplier.
(AP, 7/25/07)
2007
Aug 4, Algerian newspapers reported that the army, stepping up a counter-offensive after attacks by al Qaeda's north Africa wing, has killed around 16 of the group's fighters in the past three days.
(AP, 8/4/07)
2007 Sep 1, The industry ministry of Algiers announced that Algeria is inviting bids to privatize 13 companies in the electronics, iron, and public works sectors.
(AP, 9/2/07)
2007 Sep 6, In Algeria a bomb ripped through a crowd waiting for the Algerian president to arrive in Batna, killing 22 people and injuring more than 107.
(AFP, 9/7/07)
2007 Sep 8, A booby-trapped car exploded at a barracks housing coast guard officials, killing 30 officers in Algeria's second terror attack this week. Al-Qaida in Islamic North Africa claimed responsibility. The suicide bomber was reported to be a 15-year-old
student.
(AP, 9/8/07)(AP, 9/9/07)(AP, 9/10/07)
2007 Sep 14, In Algeria a bomb hidden in a bag exploded outside a compound housing police officials in Zemmouri, killing three
people.
(AP, 9/15/07)
2007 Sep 21, A bomb attack near a city east of Algiers injured two French citizens, one Italian and six Algerians, including five
police.
(AFP, 9/21/07)
2007 Sep 24, In Algeria 3 civil guards were killed when their patrol was ambushed by an armed group in Tassedane in the eastern region of Mila. A
serviceman was killed and five others injured when several homemade bombs exploded in scrubland at Ma-Labiod.
(AFP, 9/26/07)
2007 Sep 28, In Algiers an Arab-language daily
reported that Hassan Hattab (40), one of the most hardline guerrilla chiefs opposed to Algeria's government, has surrendered. Hattab, aka Abou Hamza, founded the Salafist Movement for Preaching and Combat (GSPC) in 1998. Al Hayat, based in London, reported that Hattab was "arrested on September 22 by Algerian security services.
(AP, 9/29/07)
2007 Oct 6, Sofiane el-Fassila (b.1975), an alleged mastermind (alias Hareg Zoheir, Zobeir Harkat) of several recent suicide bombing attacks in Algeria, was shot dead with 2 suspected accomplices in the town of Boghni.
He was the deputy chief of al Qaeda's North Africa wing and believed to be the group's operational leader. Security officials said 8 soldiers and four Islamic extremists have been killed in the last few days in eastern Algeria.
(AFP, 10/6/07)(AP,
10/10/07)(www.tribuneindia.com/2007/20071011/world.htm#8)
2007 Oct 12, In Algeria a police officer was assassinated in one of two attacks in the northern Tizi Ouzou region. At about the same time, five soldiers were injured when Islamists fired at a
military checkpoint near the neighboring town of Boghni.
(AFP, 10/15/07)
2007 Oct 13, In Algeria 4 armed Islamists were killed by security forces near the town of Thenia, about
50 kilometers (30 miles) east of Algiers.
(AFP, 10/15/07)
2007 Oct 20, France handed Algeria details of where its forces laid some 3 million landmines on
the country's eastern and western borders from 1956-1959.
(AFP, 10/20/07)
2007 Oct 27, Algerian security sources said the army killed 17 Islamist rebels during security
operations in the east of the country over three days this week.
(AP, 10/27/07)
2007 Nov 5, Ten Islamic fundamentalists convicted of a terrorist attack were sentenced to death
in their absence by an Algerian court. The group was behind a bomb attack on a police patrol in June 2003 in which nine officers were killed.
(AFP, 11/7/07)
2007 Nov 10, In
Algeria 3 people were wounded when a booby trapped car exploded near a police residence in the northern town of Mahatmas.
(AFP, 11/11/07)
2007 Nov 14, Abdelhamid Sadaoui, also
known as Abou El Haythem, was killed and another Islamist wounded during clashes with the Algerian army in the restive northeastern Kabylia region. Sadaoui was believed to be the treasurer of Al-Qaeda's North African branch.
(AFP, 11/16/07)
2007 Nov 17, In eastern Algeria a gas explosion in an old house killed six people and injured another eight.
(AFP, 11/17/07)
2007 Nov 18, British ambassador Andrew Anderson said Algeria has formally demanded the extradition from Britain of former Algerian bank chief Rafik Khalifa, sentenced to life over a massive embezzlement scandal.
(AP,
11/18/07)
2007 Nov 27, In Algeria officials said floods caused by days of torrential rain have killed 11 people, injured several others and have cut off many roads in northern Algeria.
(AFP, 11/28/07)
2007 Nov 29, Algeria's ruling National Liberation Front (FLN) won local elections on a turnout of 43 percent.
(AFP,
11/30/07)
2007 Dec 1, Officials said a week of heavy rains in northern Algeria caused the death of 15 people, while three more people are missing feared dead.
(AFP,
12/1/07)
2007 Dec 3, Ten people believed to be Algerian asylum seekers drowned while a Dutch ship tried to rescue them in stormy Mediterranean waters. Two men survived the ordeal.
(AP, 12/5/07)
2007 Dec 4, France and Algeria agreed to cooperate on civilian nuclear technologies. French oil group Total said it had signed a deal to invest about 1.5 billion dollars in a new 3.0-billion-dollar (2.0 billion euros)
petrochemical plant in Algeria.
(AFP, 12/4/07)(AP, 12/4/07)
2007 Dec 11, In Algeria car bombs exploded minutes apart in central Algiers, heavily damaging UN buildings and
ripping the facade off the wing of a government office. 37 people were killed, including 17 UN employees. Two convicted terrorists who had been freed in an amnesty carried out the suicide bombings at UN and government buildings. The interior ministry later said the blasts were the work of the El Farouk Brigade, which was responsible for a number of other attacks in the last two years. Al-Qaida's
self-styled North African branch claimed responsibility.
(Reuters, 12/11/07)(AP, 12/12/07)(AP, 12/13/07)(AFP, 2/6/08)(AP, 12/11/08)
2007 Dec 26, A roadside bomb targeting a
police patrol exploded east of Algeria's capital, killing two officers and injuring two others. The attack came as authorities rounded up 11 suspected members of two suspected support networks for armed Islamic militant groups in recent days.
(AP, 12/27/07)
2008 Jan 2, In Algeria a car bomb exploded near a police station in Naciria east of Algiers, killing at least four people and ripping off the building's façade.
(AFP,
1/2/08)
2008 Jan 8, In Algeria an army commander and three members of the security forces were killed during an operation aimed at flushing out an Islamist group in scrubland in the north of the country. The sweep, aided by helicopters, was intended
to flush out a group of 10-15 new recruits to the Al-Qaeda of the Islamic Maghreb group, who were intent on launching attacks on Constantine.
(AP, 1/9/08)
2008 Jan 19, In
Algeria an armed Islamist was killed in a clash with anti-terrorist security forces at Tebessa, near the Tunisian border while a fourth man died at Jijel, also in the east. His weapon was seized.
(AFP, 1/21/08)
2008 Jan 20, In Algeria 2 armed suspects died in the Eddough mountains, near the eastern city of Annaba, after they failed to follow orders to surrender.
(AFP, 1/21/08)
2008 Jan 28, Abderrahmane Bouzegza, leader of the Dec 11 attacks in Algiers, was killed by the army at Boumerdes, east of the capital. 4 others responsible for the attacks were arrested in February.
(AFP, 2/6/08)
2008 Jan 29, In northern Algeria a car loaded with explosives and headed for a police station exploded after officers stopped the attack with bullets. At least two people were killed and 23 wounded.
(AP,
1/29/08)
2008 Feb 7, In eastern Algeria suspected Islamist militants gunned down eight police officers in a late night ambush outside the village of Ain R'Ghiya. In a separate morning attack, another officer was killed and one injured in the village
of Boukalfa.
(AP, 2/8/08)
2008 Feb 17, In Algeria African Union energy ministers launched a new energy organization for Africa tasked with coordinating policy for the
resource-rich continent.
(AP, 2/17/08)
2008 Feb 26, In Algeria the "emir" Hamza (alias Abdi Abdi), a suspected leader of al-Qaida's local affiliate, was killed during the sweep
in the town of Legatha.
(AP, 2/27/08)
2008 Feb 27, French ambassador Bernard Bajolet said France has handed Algeria details of radioactive leaks from nuclear tests in the
Algerian desert in the 1960s and should have acted earlier to clean up the damage.
(Reuters, 2/27/08)
2008 Feb 29, Algerian security forces chased some 30 Islamic insurgents
planting roadside bombs back into their refuge east of the Algiers.
(AP, 3/2/08)
2008 Mar 1, Algerian troops called in helicopters and assaulted a hideout with rockets and
helicopter fire, killing 25 members of an al-Qaida affiliate in North Africa.
(AP, 3/2/08)
2008 Mar 7, Algerian authorities seized 2 tons of cannabis on the border with Morocco.
2 more tons were seized Mar 3. The total was valued at around 4 million euros.
(AP, 3/9/08)
2008 Mar 8, In Algeria Al Qaeda's wing in north Africa said in an Internet posting
that it has killed 20 Algerian soldiers and wounded 30 in clashes in its eastern stronghold, where the army has launched a campaign against the rebels.
(Reuters, 3/9/08)
2008
Apr 14, Algeria, the world’s 4th largest gas exporter, said it will and stop signing long term gas contracts and switch to shorter term ones.
(WSJ, 4/15/08, p.A14)
2008 Apr 27,
A summit aimed at kick-starting Maghreb economic integration was disrupted when Moroccan and Algerian government ministers clashed over the disputed Western Sahara region.
(AFP, 4/28/08)
2008
May 11, In Algeria 6 government troops died in an ambush allegedly by armed members of the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC) as the soldiers were in a truck patrolling Medea province.
(AFP, 5/13/08)
2008 May 12, In Algeria 3 government troops were killed in an ambush allegedly set by the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC) 120 kilometers (75 miles) east of Algiers in Bouira province.
(AP,
5/13/08)
2008 Jun 3, Four Algerian Christians received suspended jail terms and fines for seeking to convert Muslims in the latest in a series of cases to have provoked accusations in the West of religious
repression.
(AP, 6/3/08)
2008 Jun 4, In Algeria 2 simultaneous bombs in Bordj El Kiffan, a suburb of Algiers, killed a suicide bomber and injured six others. The blasts targeted
a barracks and a seaside café.
(AP, 6/6/08)
2008 Jun 5, In Algeria a bomb attack blamed on Islamist militants killed six Algerian soldiers and wounded four in
Cap Djinet, east of Algiers.
(AFP, 6/6/08)
2008 Jun 8, In Algeria 2 bombs exploded at a railway station east of Algiers reportedly killing 13 people. Officials the next day said
only 2 people, a French engineer and his driver, were killed in the bombings.
(Reuters, 6/8/08)(AP, 6/9/08)
2008 Jun 13, A Spanish judge jailed six Algerians on provisional
charges of aiding terror groups linked to al-Qaida in North Africa.
(AP, 6/13/08)
2008 Jun 23, Algeria's president named Ahmed Ouyahia, a pragmatist known for his tough line
against Islamic extremists, as the country's prime minister, his third stint in the post.
(AP, 6/24/08)
2008 Jun, Algeria’s mobile-telephone market rose to some 28 million, up
from 1.4 million four years earlier. Two-thirds of the market was run by Egyptian and Qatari firms.
(Econ, 6/14/08, p.64)
2008 Jul 13, Algeria’s government newspaper El
Moudjhaid said a consortium of British-based oil services company Petrofac and Indonesian engineering company IKPT provisionally won a contract to build an LNG plant in western Mediterranean port of Arzew.
(AP, 7/13/08)
2008 Jul 17, Algeria and Germany wound up two days of talks in Algiers with a call for more economic cooperation between the two countries.
(AP, 7/17/08)
2008
Jul 17, In Algeria a truck and a bus collided on one of the main highways in the Relizane region killing 7 people with 28 seriously injured.
(AFP, 7/17/08)
2008 Jul 17, The US Treasury moved to freeze assets of
four Algerians it said were leaders of an al Qaeda-affiliated group responsible for deadly bombings in Algeria last month.
(Reuters, 7/17/08)
2008 Jul 18, In Algeria the
government of Mali and ethnic Tuareg rebels reached a truce agreement in dangerous northern Mali. One faction of the Tuareg group refused to sign the deal, saying it did not do enough to help the Tuaregs.
(AP, 7/22/08)
2008 Jul 30, Morocco's King Mohammed VI condemned Algeria's continuing closure of their common border, despite repeated calls by Rabat for it to be reopened. Algiers has set a global settlement of the conflict in Western Sahara as a precondition for reopening the border, which it closed in 1994 after
Morocco claimed Algerian secret service agents were behind an Islamist extremist attack in Marrakesh.
(AFP, 7/30/08)
2008 Jul, Sofiane Hadarbache, a former Guantanamo inmate,
was sent back to Algeria. He was picked up by US forces outside of the Afghan capital, Kabul, in 2001 and sent to the US detention facility in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where he was held through July 2008. On Nov 4, 2010, an Algerian court acquitted Hadarbache of charges that included belonging to a terrorist group operating abroad and
counterfeiting.
(AP, 11/5/10)
2008 Aug 3, In Algeria 21 people, six of them policemen, were injured in a suicide car bomb attack in the town of Tizi Ouzou in Algeria's Kabylie
region.
(AFP, 8/3/08)
2008 Aug 7, In Algeria 18 people were reported dead from a crash between a van and a bus near the city of Mascara, and 25 were reported injured. Three men
who were in critical condition subsequently died.
(AFP, 8/8/08)
2008 Aug 8, In Algeria 12 armed Islamists, including a number of individuals considered among the leaders of
Al-Qaeda in the Maghreb, were killed overnight by the army in an ambush near Beni Douala, near Tizi Ouzou.
(AFP, 8/10/08)
2008 Aug 9, In Algeria a suicide car bomb attack on
security forces killed at least eight people and injured 19 others in the coastal town of Zemmouri el Bahri, east of Algiers, the second such blast this month.
(AFP, 8/10/08)
2008
Aug 14, A colonel in the Algerian army and another soldier were killed in a bomb attack in the Jijel region.
(AFP, 8/16/08)
2008 Aug 17, In eastern Algeria
rebels linked to al Qaeda had killed eight policemen, three soldiers and a civilian in successive ambushes. 4 Islamist militants were killed in the attack.
(AFP, 8/19/08)
2008
Aug 19, A suicide car bomb attack east of Algiers killed 43 people and wounded 45. The attack targeted a paramilitary gendarmerie training school at Issers. Most of the dead were young men aged between 18 and 20.
(Reuters, 8/19/08)
2008 Aug 20, In eastern Algeria 2 car bomb attacks killed at least 11 people in Bouira with at least 31 people wounded. This followed a suicide bomber who killed 43 people a day earlier.
(AFP,
8/20/08)
2008 Aug 24, Algerian security forces killed 10 Islamist rebels in a security operation southwest of the capital.
(Reuters,
8/25/08)
2008 Aug 26, The Pentagon said two men were cleared for release to Algeria from Guantanamo, Cuba, where about 260 detainees remained.
(AP,
8/26/08)
2008 Sep 28, In Algeria a suspected suicide bombing killed three people and wounded six in a village east of Algiers.
(AP,
9/29/08)
2008 Sep, From Algeria Andrew Warren, a CIA station chief and a convert to Islam, was sent back to the United States after two women came forward with charges of rape after lacing their drinks with a
drug.
(AP, 1/29/09)(SFC, 7/1/09, p.A4)
2008 Oct 1, Two days of torrential rains in the Algerian desert created flash floods. 43 deaths were later
confirmed.
(AP, 10/2/08)(AP, 10/12/08)
2008 Oct 7, Algerian PM Ahmed Ouyahia said there had been 250 million euros worth of damage, largely to infrastructure, from the recent
flooding.
(AP, 10/12/08)
2008 Oct 12, Algeria announced it will spend 500 million euros (675 million dollars) on protecting towns from flooding as the death toll from floods
this month rose to 43.
(AFP, 10/12/08)
2008 Nov 2, Dubai Port World (DP World) said it has agreed on a deal to run the cargo terminal in the Algerian port Djendjen. The port,
which opened in 1993, is the most commercially important in Algeria.
(AFP, 11/2/08)
2008 Nov 5, In Algeria Fateh Bouchibane, mayor of Timezrit in the Kabylie region, was
abducted and killed.
(AP, 11/6/08)
2008 Nov 12, Algeria's parliament overwhelmingly approved constitutional amendments that abolish presidential term limits, paving the way for
President Abdelaziz Bouteflika to seek a third term in spring elections.
(AP, 11/12/08)
2008 Nov 17, Algeria and Argentina signed an agreement to boost cooperation over civil
nuclear energy as part of Argentine President Cristina Kirchner's tour of northern Africa.
(AFP, 11/17/08)
2008 Dec 17, OPEC, meeting in Algeria, said it is cutting 2.2 million
barrels a day from its output, the largest ever at one time, to stem crude prices that have plummeted over 70% from summer highs of nearly $150. Members among the 13-nation organization were officially producing a daily 29.045 million barrels in September.
(AP,
12/17/08)
2008 Dec 17, Algerian news reports said Raked Brahim (28) was convicted and jailed for three years for traveling to Iraq in 2007 to take part in attacks against US forces. He was detained in Syria and later deported back to Algeria.
(AP, 12/17/08)
2009 Jan 16, An Algerian customs officer was killed by armed Islamists west of Algiers. The 35-year-old official had his throat slit after being stopped at a fake barricade put up and manned by about 10 armed
Islamists at Miliana near Ain Defla.
(AFP, 1/17/09)
2009 Jan 17, The US Department of Defense announced that it transferred six detainees out of Guantanamo, leaving about 245 at
the offshore prison. Four detainees were sent to Iraq, one to Algeria and one to Afghanistan. Since 2002, more than 525 detainees have departed Guantanamo. Haji Bismullah (29) of Afghanistan had always insisted that he was no terrorist.
(AP, 1/18/09)(SFC, 1/19/09, p.A4)
2009 Jan 30, In Algeria at least 27 people were wounded and several buildings torched during clashes among Muslim worshippers outside a mosque in Ghardaia.
(AFP, 1/31/09)
2009 Feb 1, Algerian newspapers reported that Ali Ben Touati, a leading member of Al-Qaeda's North African branch, has surrendered to Algerian authorities.
(AFP, 2/1/09)
2009 Feb 12, In eastern Algeria 2 bombs exploded hours after President Abdelaziz Bouteflika announced he will run for a new term, killing at least seven people.
(AFP, 2/13/09)
2009 Feb 15, A series of attacks in Algeria left seven soldiers and a suspected militant dead, as authorities ratcheted up efforts to secure the country before presidential elections. An Algerian newspaper reported that security forces killed a senior member of Al Qaeda's north African wing after a
tip-off from a former militant led them to his hideout. The daily Ennahar reported that Mourad Bouzid (65), also known as Ami Slimane, was a charismatic figure instrumental in recruiting and motivating younger Al Qaeda fighters.
(AP, 2/16/09)(Reuters, 2/15/09)
2009 Feb 18, Al Qaeda's Algeria-based branch (AQMI) claimed it is holding two missing Canadian diplomats hostage. UN envoy Robert Fowler and his aide Louis Guay, went missing in the West African country of Niger last month.
(SFC,
2/19/09, p.A2)(www.thestar.com/printArticle/589398)
2009 Feb 22, In eastern Algeria 9 members of a private security firm were killed when Islamist militants attacked their base near Jijel.
(AFP, 2/23/09)
2009 Feb 28, In Algeria an army operation in the mountains of Blida province, about 100 kilometers (62 miles) south of Algiers killed 6 Islamist militants. One militant was killed on Feb 26 before the army took the
rest of the group by surprise. Another 16 were reported killed during a search operation near Soulahane.
(AFP, 3/2/09)(AFP, 3/3/09)
2009 Mar 7, In Algeria 2 people were killed
and five others wounded in an attack on the barracks of security forces at Tadmait near Tizi Ouzou east of the capital.
(AP, 3/7/09)
2009 Mar 10, In Algeria border guards seized
3.5 tons of cannabis in a desert region close to the frontier with Morocco.
(AFP, 3/12/09)
2009 Mar 11, In eastern Algeria suspected Islamist extremists shot and killed a police
officer and wounded another in a shoot-out near Batna city. 3 armed Islamists were killed by the security forces in Souk El-Thenine town.
(AFP, 3/12/09)
2009 Mar 14, In Algeria
Islamists cut the throat of a shepherd and 300 of his sheep in Chatabia village near the Tunisian border. Three family members and an elected official died in a bomb explosion the following morning as they headed to the site of the killing.
(AFP, 3/16/09)
2009 Mar 16, At least two Algerian soldiers were killed when their convoy was hit by roadside bombs in the east of the country.
(AFP, 3/17/09)
2009 Mar 24, The French government offered for the first time to compensate victims of nuclear tests in Algeria and the South Pacific, bowing to decades of pressure by people sickened by radiation.
(AP,
3/24/09)
2009 Apr 9, Algerians voted in a presidential election that is expected to give the incumbent Abdelaziz Bouteflika another five years to try to quell terrorism and reform the North African country's lackluster economy, which is heavily
dependent on oil and gas. President Abdelaziz Bouteflika won 90.24% of the vote.
(AP, 4/9/09)(Reuters, 4/10/09)
2009 Apr 10, In Algeria President Abdelaziz Bouteflika hailed his
landslide re-election for a third term as a "lesson in democracy," but opposition politicians and independent media alleged fraud at the polls, and the US government expressed concern.
(AP, 4/11/09)
2009 Apr 11, Morocco blamed Algeria for a "serious and blatant" violation by the Polisario Front of an 18-year-long ceasefire in the disputed Western Sahara and urged the UN to intervene.
(Reuters, 4/11/09)
2009 Apr 13, Algeria’s constitutional council officially declared Abdelaziz Bouteflika re-elected as president of Algeria for a third mandate with 90.23% of the vote on a turnout of 74.56%.
(AFP,
4/13/09)
2009 Apr 19, Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika vowed to pursue national reconciliation, after being sworn in for a third five-year term.
(AP,
4/19/09)
2009 May 7, In Algeria 4 armed Islamists were killed by Algerian security forces during firefights in Tizi Ouzou and Boumerdes, east of the capital Algiers. Two soldiers died as well, and three assault rifles were seized by the military.
Another Islamist was killed as security forces mounted a joint operation on an armed group at Kharrouba, near Boumerdes.
(AFP, 5/8/09)
2009 May 26, In Algeria 9 soldiers were
killed near Biskra, 425 kilometers south of the capital, in n ambush which wounded 10 others.
(AFP, 6/18/09)
2009 Jun 2, In Algeria an estimated 30 Al-Qaida-linked militants
killed two teachers and eight police escorts as they brought copies of tests back from an examination center in the town of Timezrit, 49 miles east of Algiers.
(AP, 6/3/09)
2009
Jun 12, In Algeria at least five members of an Islamist militant group were killed near Constantine, as well as several Islamist clan chiefs in different regions.
(AFP, 6/18/09)
2009
Jun 13, Algeria's national oil company Sonatrach announced it had awarded a 79.3-billion-dinar (1.11-billion-dollar, 793-million-euro) contract to the Canadian engineering firm SNC-Lavalin to build natural gas processing facilities.
(AFP, 6/13/09)
2009 Jun 16, The US added six African countries to a blacklist of countries trafficking in people, and put US trading partner Malaysia back on the list. Chad, Eritrea, Niger, Mauritania, Swaziland, and Zimbabwe were added to the list in the annual report. Removed from the list were Qatar, Oman, Algeria,
and Moldova.
(AFP, 6/16/09)
2009 Jun 17, In southeastern Algeria Islamist rebels ambushed a military convoy and killed at least 18 gendarmes and one civilian in the deadliest
attack on government forces in the last six months. In 2011 a criminal court sentenced six people to death for the attack, for which Al-Qaeda claimed responsibility.
(AFP, 6/18/09)(SFC, 6/19/09, p.A2)(AFP, 1/29/11)
2009 Jul 3, Algeria, Niger and Nigeria signed an accord to build a 10-billion-dollar trans-Saharan gas pipeline linking vast reserves in Nigeria to Europe.
(AFP, 7/3/09)
2009 Jul 6, The 2nd Panafrican Festival opened in Algiers and was scheduled to last to July 20. The first Panafrican Festival took place back in 1969.
(AP, 7/9/09)
2009 Jul 20, Algeria’s Ministry of Transport said the Chinese civil engineering group CCECC has won 3 contracts worth a total of 1.46 billion euros to build railways in Algeria.
(AFP, 7/20/09)
2009 Jul 22, The Algerian government issued a decree effective as of August shifting the dates of the weekend to Friday and Saturday in a move viewed as a boost the North African nation's faltering economy. Algeria had observed its weekends on Thursdays and Fridays since 1976 as do a few other countries
including Iran and Saudi Arabia.
(AP, 7/22/09)
2009 Jul 25, In Algeria five Islamists were killed by the army about 15 km (nine miles) east of Tizi Ouzou.
(AFP, 7/29/09)
2009 Jul 26, In northwestern Algeria members of Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb killed two local security officers in an ambush in the Mascara
region.
(AFP, 7/28/09)
2009 Jul 27, Algerian papers reported that security forces have killed five armed Islamic extremists in the northeastern Tizi Ouzou region, about 100 km
(60 miles) east of Algiers.
(AFP, 7/27/09)
2009 Jul 28, Algeria's coast guard arrested 19 illegal migrants in a dinghy off the western town of Arzew, near Oran, as they tried to
reach Europe.
(AP, 7/28/09)
2009 Jul 29, The Algerian media reported that the army has killed 16 Islamist extremists in separate operations in recent days. The bodies of eight
Islamists were discovered on July 27-28 near Batna, 435 km (270 miles) southeast of Algiers, after army shelling followed by a ground operation. 3 other armed Islamists were killed in two ambushes near Tizi Ouzou, 110 km (70 miles) east of the capital, on July 27-28. At least 11 Algerian soldiers were killed in an ambush by Islamic extremists while they escorted a military convoy in an Algerian
tourist region outside the coastal town of Damous. Five Islamists were killed when the soldiers shot back.
(AFP, 7/29/09)(AFP, 7/30/09)
2009 Aug 15, In northern Algeria an
explosion followed by gunfire left one police officer dead and two others wounded at a beach. A head-on collision between a lorry and a minibus killed 16 people on the outskirts of the city of Ghazaouet, including more than a dozen members of the same family traveling together.
(AFP,
8/15/09)
2009 Sep 2, In Algeria Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez called for closer economic ties with Algeria, notably in the energy sector, during a two-day visit here.
(AFP,
9/3/09)
2009 Oct 4, Algerian coastguards picked up 45 Algerian would-be migrants to Europe at three places off the coast west of Algiers.
(AFP,
10/4/09)
2009 Oct 9, In Algeria 10 suspected Islamists and 3 soldiers were killed in a fierce gunbattle near the Great Erg, the world's largest sand dune, when a convoy of heavily armed militants was attacked by the Algerian
army.
(AP, 10/10/09)
2009 Oct 27, Algeria and Britain signed a new defense agreement. An embassy spokeswoman said "This outline agreement aims to regularize cooperation between
the two countries in defense matters, particularly the training of Algerian officers in Great Britain."
(AFP, 10/27/09)
2009 Oct 29, Algerian security forces seized 3.5 tons of
cannabis as well as weapons and two all-terrain vehicles in the south of the country.
(AFP, 10/31/09)
2009 Nov 12, Italy's top security official said that authorities have
smashed an international terror cell with the arrest in Italy and elsewhere in Europe of 17 Algerians who were raising money to finance terrorism.
(AP, 11/12/09)
2009 Nov 14,
Three would-be migrants drowned, one was rescued and 10 were missing off the Algerian coast after their boats sank on their way to Europe.
(AFP, 11/15/09)
2009 Nov 18, Egyptian
fans were attacked after Algeria won (1-0) a make-or-break World Cup qualifying game in the Sudanese capital Khartoum, and offices of Egyptian companies in Algeria were ransacked after a matchup in Cairo over the weekend.
(AP, 11/19/09)(Econ, 11/28/09, p.52)
2009 Nov 22, An Algerian court acquitted 2 men who had been held for seven years in the US military prison in Guantanamo Bay on suspicion of belonging to an extremist group. Faghoul Abdelli and Mohamed Terari were arrested in Pakistan after the September 11, 2001 attacks in the US and transferred to
Guantanamo Bay where they were held without trial before being sent home to Algeria last year.
(Reuters, 11/22/09)
2009 Nov 29, An Algiers court sentenced Ahmed Belbacha, an
Algerian Guantanamo inmate who refuses to be sent home, to 20 years in prison for belonging to an "overseas terrorist group." Belbacha, who has been held at the US prison camp since February 2002 following his arrest in Pakistan, has been deemed by US authorities as no longer an "enemy combatant" and cleared for release to Algeria. Belbacha said that he fears torture at home and refuses to be
repatriated. Instead, he has requested political asylum in the United States.
(AFP, 11/29/09)
2009 Nov 30, An Algerian health organization (AnisS) warned that thousands of its
people are unknowingly infected with the AIDS virus and called for more testing and prevention efforts.
(AFP, 12/1/09)
2009 Dec 29, A security source said Algerian border guards
have seized more than four tons of cannabis following a skirmish with smugglers.
(AF, 12/29/09)
2010 Jan 4, In Algeria an Algerian employee of Canadian construction firm
SNC-Lavalin was kidnapped by insurgents southeast of Algiers. The engineer was freed on Jan 7.
(Reuters, 1/10/10)
2010 Jan 7, In Algeria a stand-off with police began in the
industrial town of Rouiba after the 5,000 employees of the state-owned National Company of Industrial Vehicles (SNVI) started an indefinite strike action to demand higher wages and better terms.
(AP, 1/7/10)
2010 Jan 9, Algerian security forces killed 10 Islamist rebels in an ambush in the region of M'sila, 400 km (250 miles) east of Algiers. A "large quantity" of weapons were seized during the operation. Islamists looted and burned a Protestant church, suggesting they were inspired by a recent spate of religious intolerance in the Arab and Muslim
world.
(Reuters, 1/10/10)(AP, 1/11/10)
2010 Jan 10, In Algeria a collision between a bus and a truck killed 15 people and injured another 15 on a major highway in the Ghardaia
region in the Sahara desert.
(Reuters, 1/10/10)
2010 Jan 11, Algeria's foreign ministry said it had summoned the US ambassador to "strongly protest" the North African country's
placing on a 14-nation terror watch list drawn up by the Obama administration.
(AFP, 1/11/10)
2010 Jan 13, The head of Algeria's national oil corporation Sonatrach was suspended
from his job and ordered to appear before investigators probing corruption. Mohamed Meziane was replaced in his job by vice-president Abdelhafid Feghouli.
(AFP, 1/15/10)
2010
Jan 27, In western Algeria the Oran criminal court sentenced eight people to jail terms for drug trafficking. Six of the convicted men were sentenced to 20 years, a seventh to life and the eighth, who was on the run, was also sentenced to life, after the seizure in 2008 of two tons of cannabis resin at Bechar in the southwest.
(AFP, 1/28/10)
2010 Feb 25, In Algeria a police official shot dead Colonel Ali Tounsi, the national police chief, during a blazing row in his office in central Algiers.
(AFP, 2/25/10)
2010 Mar 10, In Algeria almost 200 striking doctors, dentists and pharmacists demonstrated near the presidential palace to press their pay demands. The health professionals have been on strike since the end of
December.
(AFP, 3/10/10)
2010 Mar 16, Seven north African states held talks in Algeria to plan a coordinated response to Al-Qaeda following a dangerous rise in the terror
threat in the Sahara-Sahel region.
(AFP, 3/16/10)
2010 Apr 19, Algeria's Energy Minister Chakib Khelil said 11 major natural gas exporting countries have decided to work towards
a long term plan to index prices with oil.
(AFP, 4/20/10)
2010 Apr 21, The Algerian Defense Ministry said Algeria, Mauritania, Mali and Niger are opening a joint military
headquarters in the Algerian city Tamanrasset, in a united effort to combat terrorism and kidnapping in northwestern Africa. The Committee of Joint Chiefs (CEMOC) was based in Tamanrasset.
(AP, 4/21/10)(AP, 12/20/11)
2010 May 14, In Algeria a moderate earthquake killed two people and injured 43 others.
(AFP, 5/15/10)
2010 May 14, The Algerian army killed
three armed Islamic militants in the east of the country. Several weapons, including two semi-automatic rifles, were seized in the operation.
(AFP, 5/15/10)
2010 May 25, In
Algeria Atmane Touati, alias Abu El Abbas, became one of four members of al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb, or AQMI, to turn himself in after his wife "convinced her husband to abandon the criminal horde and come home."
(AP, 5/31/10)
2010 May 30, Algeria's President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, amid a growing corruption scandal, fired the CEO and all top managers at Sonatrach, the state-owned oil firm that dominates the North African country's economy.
(AP,
5/31/10)
2010 Jun 11, In Algeria a suicide bomber rammed a truck into the barracks of an elite police unit in a village east of Algiers. At least nine people died, including four police officers and one Chinese
worker.
(AP, 6/11/10)
2010 Jun 30, In Algeria Al Qaeda-linked militants killed 11 Algerian paramilitary police in the oil-rich state's deadliest attack in a
year.
(AFP, 7/1/10)(SFC, 7/1/10, p.A2)
2010 Jul 6, Algerian security forces killed three Islamist militants in a shoot-out southeast of the capital
Algiers.
(AP, 7/6/10)
2010 Jul 18, Gitmo detainee Aziz Abdul Naji (35), held for over 8 years, was transferred to Algeria, despite his request to remain under US detention for
fear of torture and death at home. On July 25 Naji was indicted in Algeria and placed under judicial supervision.
(SFC, 7/21/10, p.A2)(AP, 7/27/10)
2010 Jul 25, In Algeria a
suicide bomber killed at least one person in the eastern Kabylie region by driving a car rigged with explosives into a building used by security forces. Al-Qaeda's branch in North Africa soon claimed responsibility for the suicide bombing.
(AP, 7/26/10)(AFP, 7/29/10)
2010 Aug 15, In Mali 2 survivors of a failed journey said 12 African nationals trying to illegally enter Europe died from thirst and hunger in the Algerian desert.
(AFP,
8/15/10)
2010 Aug 19, In Algeria storms left a trail of damage across the country killing at least seven people over the last 2 days.
(AFP,
8/19/10)
2010 Aug 28, Algerian forces killed 8 al-Qaida insurgents during clashes in the Berrekmouche valley, a mountainous area considered a bastion for the terror network's North African branch. One soldier was killed. Helicopter bombardments
continued into the next day.
(AP, 8/29/10)
2010 Sep 1, In Algeria 2 soldiers were killed and dozens injured after a suicide bomber blew up a vehicle packed with explosives by a
military convoy near the capital Algiers.
(AFP, 9/2/10)
2010 Sep 21, In Algeria a bomb exploded in the centre of Bordj Menaiel town, as a police patrol passed, killing two
policemen and wounding three civilians.
(AFP, 9/21/10)
2010 Sep 30, Algerian daily Al-Watan said spy chiefs from four north African countries (Algeria, Mauritania, Mali and
Niger) have set up a center for joint operations against Al Qaeda in the Sahel region during a meeting in Algiers.
(AFP, 9/30/10)
2010 Sep 30, Egyptian telecom giant Orascom Telecom said its Algeria unit has been hit with a $230
million preliminary tax reassessment, marking a new and increasingly acrimonious chapter in the company's relations with the North African nation.
(AP, 9/30/10)
2010 Oct 6,
Russia’s President Dmitry Medvedev headed a top level business delegation to Algeria, seeking to use his clout to push through delicate energy and telecoms deals with a traditional Moscow ally. Algeria and Russia signed six deals in sectors including energy and transportation.
(AFP, 10/6/10)(AP,
10/6/10)
2010 Oct 11, The emir of Kuwait arrived in Algeria for a two-day visit on the latest step of a north African tour.
(AFP,
10/12/10)
2010 Oct 12, In Algeria 5 people were killed when a remote control bomb exploded on a construction site in Tlidgen.
(AP,
10/13/10)
2010 Oct 18, An Algerian court sentenced Bouchouta Fares (27) to two years in prison for breaking the fast of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan late in August. He was also fined 100,000 dinars (€972, $1,359) for "breaching a precept of
Islam." Practicing a faith, Muslim or otherwise, is conditional in Algeria on obtaining a document stating the place of worship and another giving the name of the preacher, under a law passed in February 2006.
(AFP, 10/21/10)
2010 Nov 2, Algeria’s interior minister Dahou Ould Kablia said that Algeria will resume a policy of arming people to reinforce the fight against terrorism in the north African country.
(AP,
11/3/10)
2010 Nov 5, Algeria’s newspaper El-Watan Week-end reported that local police have dismantled a group of currency forgers who put more than 48 million euros in fake banknotes on to the
market.
(AFP, 11/5/10)
2010 Dec 10, Algerian troops killed 10 Islamist rebels in the eastern Kabylie region known as a stronghold of Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb
(AQIM).
(Reuters, 12/11/10)
2010 Algeria’s population stood at about 35 million.
(Econ, 5/29/10,
p.50)
2011 Jan 1, Somali pirates hijacked the MV Blida, a Greek-operated, Algerian-flagged bulk carrier. The crew included 17 Algerians, six Ukrainians including the captain, two Filipinos, an Indonesian and a Jordanian. On Oct 12 Algeria announced
that pirates have released 2 of the ship’s 27 crewmen on humanitarian grounds. The MV Blida was released on Nov 3 after a bag full of money was parachuted down to the pirates from a plane.
(Econ, 2/5/11, p.69)(AFP, 10/12/11)(AP, 11/3/11)(AFP, 11/20/11)
2011 Jan 6, Fresh unrest struck Algeria as protests over rising costs and unemployment spread after a night of rioting in the capital in which youths attacked a police station and torched shops.
(AFP,
1/6/11)
2011 Jan 6, The US military said that it has sent a Guantanamo prisoner back to his native Algeria over the objections of his attorneys who said he feared being tortured in his homeland. Saiid Farhi had been held without charge at the US base in Cuba for nearly nine years. 173 prisoners remained at
Guantanamo.
(AP, 1/6/11)
2011 Jan 7, In Algeria fresh rioting broke out in Algiers as police deployed around mosques and authorities suspended soccer championship matches after
violent protests over food prices and unemployment. Two demonstrators died in the spreading unrest over rising food prices.
(Reuters, 1/7/11)(AP, 1/8/11)
2011 Jan 8, In Algeria
Fresh protests erupted against soaring food prices as the government considered measures to limit the cost of staple foodstuffs to quell the unrest. 2 people were already dead and 400 injured in protests across the country since Jan 6. The government announced that it will cut the cost of sugar and cooking oil.
(Reuters,
1/8/11)(SSFC, 1/9/11, p.A5)
2011 Jan 9, Algerian authorities vowed to punish those responsible for nationwide food riots in which at least four people were reported killed and more than 800
injured.
(AFP, 1/9/11)
2011 Jan 13, In Algeria Mohsen Bouterfif doused himself in gasoline and set himself on fire after a meeting with the mayor of the small city of Boukhadra
who was unable to provide him a job and a house. Bouterfif died on of his burns on Jan 15.
(Reuters, 1/16/11)
2011 Jan 18, Algeria’s El Khabar daily said a father-of-six became
the fifth Algerian to turn himself into a human fireball this week, in a replica of the immolation protest that triggered the president's ouster in neighboring Tunisia.
(AFP, 1/18/11)
2011
Jan 19, In Algeria 3 people attempted suicide by fire, bringing the total number of such actions to eight in a week, in a replica of protests that ousted the president of neighboring Tunisia.
(AFP, 1/19/11)
2011 Jan 22, In Algeria riot police clashed with protesters in Algiers as they broke up a banned pro-democracy rally amid mounting public grievances that have fuelled fears of Tunisia-style unrest. Karim Bendine (35) died in a hospital in Douera, a suburb of Algiers, where he was admitted earlier this
week with most of his body covered in third-degree burns. Seven other Algerians have set themselves on fire since January 12, apparently inspired by the self-immolation in Tunisia of 26-year-old Mohammed Bouazizi.
(AFP, 1/22/11)(AFP, 1/23/11)
2011 Jan 26, Algeria confirmed it bought almost a million tons of wheat and ordered an urgent speeding up of grain imports, a move seen heading off unrest over food prices as protests swept north Africa.
(Reuters,
1/26/11)
2011 Jan 28, In eastern Algeria a guard was killed and four people injured in the Kabylie region, when armed Islamists attacked a barracks.
(AP,
1/29/11)
2011 Jan 29, In eastern Algeria a criminal court sentenced six people to death for a 2009 attack that killed 19 people and for which Al-Qaeda claimed responsibility.
(AP, 1/29/11)
2011 Feb 2, Italian Maria Sandra Mariani (53) was kidnapped in southeastern Algeria near the town of Djanet by Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM). Algeria’s official news agency reported the kidnapping on Feb 4. Mariani was released
on April 17, 2012.
(AP, 2/4/11)(AFP, 7/21/11)(AFP, 4/17/12)
2011 Feb 3, Algeria's President Abdelaziz Bouteflika said the state of emergency, in force for the past 19 years,
will be lifted in the very near future.
(AFP, 2/3/11)
2011 Feb 4, Algerian forces killed Kamel Bourihane (aka Abou Hafs), a senior Islamic militant. He was linked with two
attacks in 2007 in the capital Algiers that left dozens dead.
(AFP, 2/6/11)
2011 Feb 6, Algerian newspapers reported that security services had dismantled an AQIM cell in the
southeast of the country that had been planning attacks in Europe, in particular in France.
(AFP, 2/6/11)
2011 Feb 7, Algerian authorities announced they have banned an
opposition rally set for the capital on Feb 12 to call for an end to President Abdelaziz Bouteflika's rule. Pro-democracy demonstrators said they will go ahead with the planned march.
(AFP, 2/7/11)(AP, 2/7/11)
2011 Feb 12, In Algeria more than 400 people were arrested during a pro-democracy protest that brought some 10 thousand people onto the streets of Algiers. The marchers urged reforms pushing Algeria toward democracy but did not specifically call for Pres. Bouteflika to resign. Some 28,000 security forces were deployed to block the march and disperse the
crowds.
(AP, 2/12/11)
2011 Feb 13, Algerian opposition groups said they would follow up yesterday’s protest by calling a demonstration in the capital every Saturday until the
government is changed.
(Reuters, 2/13/11)
2011 Feb 14, Algeria’s Foreign Minister Mourad Medelci said the country’s 19-year-old state of emergency will end within days, brushing
off concerns that recent protests in the country could escalate as in Tunisia and Egypt.
(Reuters, 2/14/11)
2011 Feb 14, France called on Algeria to allow anti-government protests, inspired by uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia, to take
place freely and without violence.
(AFP, 2/14/11)
2011 Feb 19, In Algeria riot police clashed with thousands of pro-democracy supporters who tried to stage a rally in central
Algiers, leaving one Algerian opposition deputy seriously injured.
(AFP, 2/19/11)(AP, 2/19/11)
2011 Feb 21, In Algeria about 500 students rallied in the capital, part of the
wave of unrest in Arab world to register discontent with national governments. The students want the government to scrap a new law that dilutes the value of their diplomas by giving equal status to less-qualified degree holders in the job market.
(AP, 2/21/11)
2011 Feb 22, Algeria’s government, in a major concession to opposition groups, adopted a measure that would lift a 19-year state of emergency.
(SFC, 2/23/11, p.A2)
2011 Feb 24, Algeria officially lifted its 19-year old state of emergency.
(SFC, 2/25/11, p.A2)
2011
Feb 26, In Algeria hundreds of demonstrators protested in Algiers to demand the ouster of President Bouteflika, but police were out in far larger numbers to counter the protesters.
(AP, 2/26/11)
2011 Mar 7, In Algeria thousands of auxiliary police marched across the country to demand a pay raise, breaking through heavy security to reach parliament in a rare mass show of dissent in the tightly controlled country.
(AFP,
3/7/11)
2011 Mar 8, In Algeria a bomb struck a vehicle of bird hunters and killed five of them, in the deadliest attack in months as the country battles unrest blamed on Islamist militants.
(AFP, 3/9/11)
2011 Mar 12, Police in Algeria launched a massive security operation to head off marchers calling for an immediate end to President Abdelaziz Bouteflika's regime.
(AP, 3/12/11)
2011 Mar 16, Algerian police in Algiers used tear gas to disperse a crowd of young men who were throwing petrol bombs and stones. The protesters said they had no political demands but wanted the authorities to give
them better housing.
(Reuters, 3/16/11)
2011 Mar 26, Algerian police again stifled an attempt by pro-reform activists to rally against the government in what has become a weekly
ritual. It was the eighth attempt since January by the CNDC to stage a weekly demonstration, along the lines of pro-democracy protests sweeping the Arab world, in defiance of a ban on rallies in the capital imposed in 2001.
(AFP, 3/26/11)
2011 Apr 4, In Algeria auxiliary police, specialist doctors and university students pushed on with strikes and demonstrations to press demands including for improved pay and conditions.
(AFP,
4/4/11)
2011 Apr 15, In Algeria Islamist extremists attacked an army post and killed at least 13 soldiers watching the Algerian president's televised speech promising reforms. Two militants in the group were killed by soldiers at the post in Kabyle.
President Bouteflika announced constitutional reforms "aimed at deepening the democratic process" amid upheavals.
(AP, 4/16/11)
2011 Apr 23, Algerian police again stifled an
attempt by pro-reform activists to rally against the government in what has become a weekly ritual.
(AFP, 4/23/11)
2011 May 2, The Algerian press said security forces have
arrested seven men, mainly Algerians and Moroccans, who are suspected of supporting Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb. Students and riot police fought pitch battles in Algiers, leaving more than 20 injured as protesters took to the streets demanding political change.
(AFP, 5/2/11)(AFP,
5/3/11)
2011 May 6, In Algeria a bomb struck a military convoy on a highway linking Jijel to Constantine, killing five soldiers and injuring five others. Journalist, Ahmed Nezar, was shot dead in his hometown of
Baghlia.
(AFP, 5/7/11)(Reuters, 5/7/11)
2011 Jun 22, An Algerian court sentenced a 28-year-old Palestinian to four years in jail for possession of a banned substance used to
make explosives. The defendant had been arrested by security services last year in possession of 300 grams of mercury fulminate and crystal rocks.
(AFP, 6/22/11)
2011 Jun 23, In
Algeria a bomb attack on a military patrol killed one soldier and wounded another. Moustapha Dial, a father of five, was fired upon by troops who raided a villa in Azazga where he was caretaker and seriously wounded. He was finished off by another burst of gunfire as he tried to seek aid. 15 soldiers, including an officer, were later detained in connection with the accidental
killing.
(AFP, 6/25/11)(AFP, 7/5/11)
2011 Jun 25, An Algerian village was on strike for a second day after a civilian was shot dead by soldiers in error after a bomb attack on
June 23.
(AP, 6/25/11)
2011 Jul 4, In Algeria a policeman was killed and another wounded during a clash with armed men in the Kabylie region east of
Algiers.
(AFP, 7/4/11)
2011 Jul 11, Air Algerie cabin crew went on strike. They wanted a 106-percent pay rise and left thousands of angry travelers stranded in Paris, Marseille
and Nice airports.
(AFP, 7/13/11)
2011 Jul 14, In France thousands of angry travelers were still stranded in airports and in Algiers as a strike by Air Algerie cabin crew, who
want a 106% pay rise, went into its 4th day. Air Algerie staff ended their four-day strike after mediation by the office of PM Ahmed Ouyahia.
(AFP, 7/14/11)
2011 Jul 16, In
Algeria security forces in the eastern Boudjellal mountain region shot dead two gunmen overnight near the border with Tunisia. A suicide bomber blew up his car in front of a police station at Bordj-Menaiel. Another suicide bomber drove his motorbike at a crowd near the town hall of Bordj-Menaiel, killing a police officer and a local official.
(AFP, 7/17/11)
2011 Jul 25, In Algeria three suspects, including two would-be suicide bombers, were killed by security forces around 60km (36 miles) east of Algiers following a
tip-off. The dead included Abdelkahar Belhadj, the son of former Islamic leader Ali Belhadj.
(AFP, 7/27/11)(AFP, 7/28/11)
2011 Jul 26, In Algeria a suicide bomber blew himself
up to avoid arrest in the eastern town of Bouhamza, causing no other casualties.
(AFP, 7/27/11)
2011 Aug 14, In Algeria a suicide bomber crashed a small truck apparently laden
with explosives into a police station in Tizi Ouzou, the capital of the Kabylie region, injuring 29 people. Kabylie, the Berber capital, is the stronghold of al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb. On Aug 17 Al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb claimed responsibility.
(AP, 8/14/11)(AP,
8/18/11)
2011 Aug 26, In Algeria a bomb explosion followed by a suicide attack outside a military academy killed 16 officers in training and 2 civilians in Cherchell. Two Syrian officers were among 18 people killed in the twin suicide bombing.
Al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb soon claimed responsibility.
(AP, 8/26/11)(AFP, 8/28/11)(SFC, 8/29/11, p.A2)
2011 Aug 29, Libyan members of the National Transitional Council
announced further steps to becoming an effective government. Suleiman Mahmoud al-Obeidi, the rebels' deputy military chief, announced the formation of a 17-member committee to represent the 30 or local military councils he said had been set up in the country's west. Moammar Gadhafi's wife, Safiya Gadhafi, her daughter Aisha and sons Hannibal and Mohammed entered
Algeria.
(AP, 8/29/11)(AP, 8/30/11)
2011 Aug 30, Libyan rebels pledged to launch an assault within days on Sirte, Moammar Gadhafi's hometown. Rebels told Khadafy backers to give
up by Sep 3 or face assault. Gadhafi's daughter gave birth to a baby girl in Algeria. NATO planes bombed Gaddafi forces near Sirte, targeting tanks and other armored vehicles as well as military facilities. They also hit targets in the area of Bani Walid, another Gaddafi stronghold 150 km southeast of Tripoli.
(AP,
8/30/11)(Reuters, 8/31/11)(SFC, 8/31/11, p.A3)
2011 Sep 8, In Algeria experts from some 40 African countries gathered at a conference on desertification. The 10th session of the decision-making body of the UN Convention to Combat Desertification opens
in South Korea next month.
(AFP, 9/8/11)
2011 Sep 12, Algeria passed sweeping media reforms, ending a state monopoly on the broadcast sector and the imprisonment of journalists
for libel. No timetable was announced, however, putting on hold any new television or radio stations for now.
(AP, 9/13/11)
2011 Sep 27, Algerian residents and security
officials said troops have killed five militants in a large operation against hideouts used by Al-Qaeda's regional franchise east of the capital.
(AFP, 9/27/11)
2011 Sep 27, Spanish police arrested five Algerians suspected of helping
finance an al-Qaida-linked terror group in North Africa. On Oct 1 they were freed by a judge who said there was no significant evidence against them.
(AP, 9/27/11)(AP, 10/2/11)
2011
Oct 9, Algerian police arrested roughly 25 unemployed people as they prepared to rally against joblessness near the presidential compound.
(AFP, 10/9/11)
2011
Oct 16, Internationally acclaimed Algerian author Boualem Sansal (62) received the annual German Book Trade Peace Prize and said that people everywhere were rising up against dictatorship.
(AFP, 10/16/11)
2011 Oct 23, In Algeria gunmen kidnapped three aid workers, two Spaniards and an Italian, from the Rabuni refugee camp near Tindouf, injuring one of the hostages and a local guard in the late night attack. Security sources in Nouakchott and Bamako later said those responsible belonged to a Sahrawi wing of the north African Al-Qaeda branch, Al-Qaeda in the
Islamic Magreb (AQIM). The group later demanded 30 million euros ($39 million) to free the 3 aid workers held in northern Mali. Spaniards Enric Gonyalons and Ainhoa Fernandez del Rincon and Italian Rossella Urru were released on July 18, 2012, in exchange for three Islamists. The Islamist rebel group that freed them claimed that they also received a ransom of €15 million ($18.4
million).
(AP, 10/23/11)(AFP, 12/5/11)(AFP, 3/3/12)(AP, 7/19/12)(AP, 7/20/12)
2011 Oct 25, Lawyers in Algeria began a 3-day strike to protest proposed changes in the
organization of the profession which they say will limit their independence and powers in court.
(AFP, 10/25/11)
2011 Oct 31, Algiers inaugurated its long-awaited underground
metro system amid much fanfare after three decades of work interrupted by an oil crisis and a civil war. Work for Africa's second metro after Cairo began in earnest in 1982.
(AFP, 10/31/11)
2011
Nov 15, Algerian newspapers reported that authorities have arrested nine people, including eight Air Algerie stewards, as part of an operation against an international drug trafficking ring. The suspects, including a famous singer and an Air Algerie trade union leader, have come under pressure to retract statements in which they named certain
clients.
(AFP, 11/15/11)
2011 Nov 17, Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika sacked Noureddine Cherouati, the managing director of state energy giant Sonatrach and gave his job
to another senior official in the firm. Abdelhamid Zerguine, the head of Sonatrach's subsidiary at Lugano in Switzerland," was named to replace him.
(AFP, 11/17/11)
2011 Nov 21,
In Mali army chiefs from Algeria, Mali, Mauritania and Niger, met in Bamako amid mounting concerns over the fallout from Libya's conflict on security in the troubled zone.
(AFP, 11/21/11)
2011
Dec 5, Mauritanian police said they have arrested two Western Saharan men suspected of kidnapping an Italian and two Spanish aid workers in Algeria on October 23.
(AFP, 12/5/11)
2011 Dec 13, Algeria and Mauritania's leaders vowed to beef up security in the Sahel region, where Islamist militants, Al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), were holding a dozen Western hostages.
(AFP, 12/13/11)
2011 Dec 14, Algeria passed a media law that drew scorn from journalists, rights activists and opposition legislators who charged that it restricts freedom of expression. The law promises press freedom but also lists 12 areas in which journalists must tread carefully to avoid undermining Algeria's
national identity, sovereignty and security and the country's economic interests.
(AFP, 12/14/11)
2011 Dec 20, Algerian troops were reported to have crossed into Mali to help
government forces combat groups affiliated to Al-Qaeda.
(AFP, 12/20/11)
2011 Dec 23, Turkey responded to French genocide allegations with a charge of its own, accusing France of
committing genocide during its colonial occupation of Algeria. He alleged that beginning in 1945, about 15 percent of the population of Algeria was massacred by the French. He also said Algerians were burned in ovens. Most historians contend the Ottoman killings of up to 1.5 million Armenians constituted the first genocide of the 20th
century.
(AP, 12/23/11)
2011 Dec 31, In Algeria three Islamist militants were killed in the northeastern region of Tizi Ouzou, the scene of frequent attacks by groups affiliated
to AQIM.
(AP, 1/3/12)
2012 Jan 2, An Algerian court sentenced Abdelhamid Abou Zeid (Mohamed Ghdir), one of the most radical leaders of Al-Qaeda's north Africa branch, in his
absence to life in prison for creating "an international terror group." Four other co-accused were each sentenced to five years in jail. Algerian security forces shot dead Mohand Ouramdane, a senior operative of Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM).
(AFP, 1/2/12)(AFP,
1/3/12)
2012 Jan 8, Algeria said it is to buy a 51-percent stake in mobile phone operator Djezzy, after talks with Russian telecoms firm Vimpelcom, the main shareholder in the group's Egyptian parent company. Djezzy is the largest mobile operator in
Algeria, claiming with over 16 million subscribers last August. It has been operating in Algeria since 2002.
(AFP, 1/8/12)
2012 Jan 10, Algerian police fired tear gas on
protesters angry over unemployment and housing shortages in a southern Algerian gas industry town, leaving at least 10 injured.
(AFP, 1/10/12)
2012 Jan 16, An Algerian court
sentenced Nadji Abdelaziz (38), a former Guantanamo Bay detainee, to three years in jail for membership of an extremist group active overseas.
(AFP, 1/16/12)
2012 Jan 22,
Algeria sentenced in absentia Mokhtar Belmokhtar, a top leader in Al-Qaeda's north African branch, to death along with 3 others for acts of terrorism and "participation in voluntary acts of homicide" against members of the armed forces. Algeria has had a moratorium on the death penalty since 1993.
(AFP,
1/23/12)
2012 Jan 24, In Mauritania representatives from Sahel states (Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Algeria) and Nigeria vowed to help each other fight terrorism from Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb and Islamist sect Boko Haram, which are said to have
ties.
(AFP, 1/24/12)
2012 Feb 9, Algeria’s Channel Three radio said 30 died in road accidents over the past week caused by cold weather, and 14 of asphyxia because of poor
heating devices.
(AP, 2/9/12)
2012 Feb 20, Algerian newspapers reported that a large cache of weapons, believed to originate from Libya, have been uncovered in the southern
desert called In Amenas. They included dozens of Russian-made shoulder-launched missiles that can be used to shoot down airliners.
(AFP, 2/20/12)
2012 Mar 3, In southern Algeria
a suicide attack on a police base left 24 people wounded and the bomber dead at Tamanrasset. The Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa claimed responsibility. The group surfaced in December, when it claimed to be holding three Westerners kidnapped from a Western Sahara refugee camp in Algeria in October.
(AFP,
3/3/12)
2012 Mar 13, An Algerian court sentenced the head of Al-Qaeda's north African offshoot to death in absentia for a string of 2007 attacks, including a deadly bombing at the prime minister's office. Abdelmalek Droukdel, leader of Al-Qaeda in the
Islamic Magreb (AQIM), and eight co-defendants were sentenced to death for premeditated murder, membership of a terrorist group and attacks using explosives.
(AFP, 3/13/12)
2012
Mar 14, An Algerian court sentenced seven people to death in connection with a string of bombings carried out by Islamists in 2007. They included Fateh Bouderbala, considered to be the Algiers AQIM chief.
(AFP, 3/14/12)
2012 Apr 5, In Mali the National Movement for the Liberation of the Azawad, a rebel group that recently seized control of the remote north, announced a cease-fire saying they had reached their military goal. Ansar Dine kidnapped seven Algerian diplomats in Gao. The Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West
Africa (MUJAO) later demanded 15 million euros for the diplomats and 30 million for 3 aid workers kidnapped last Oct 23.
(AP, 4/5/12)(AFP, 4/5/12)(AFP, 5/2/12)
2012 Apr 11, In
Algeria Ahmed Ben Bella (95), the country’s first post-independence president (1963-1965), died. He was hailed as an anti-colonialist hero and the father of the nation.
(AFP, 4/12/12)
2012
Apr 29, Algerian security forces killed 20 members of an al-Qaida splinter group who were allegedly about to attack two fuel tankers.
(AP, 4/30/12)
2012 May
2, In Algeria Tarek Mameri (23) was detained for posting videos on his blog calling for a boycott of last month's parliamentary election. On June 27 a court slapped an eight-month suspended prison sentence and a 1,000-euro ($1,250) fine on a blogger.
(AFP, 6/27/12)
2012 May 10, Algeria held parliamentary elections. 44 political parties competed for 462 seats. The ruling party dominated elections, taking nearly half of the seats in the 462 person assembly, dramatically increasing its share. The Islamist Front for Justice and Development, mustered only 7 seats.
President Bouteflika's National Liberation Front tightened its grip on power by securing 220 seats. 143 of the enlarged national assembly's 462 seats will be occupied by women, up from a representation of only 7% in the outgoing house. On June 2 a multi-party national monitoring commission said the elections were neither credible nor
transparent.
(AP, 5/10/12)(AP, 5/12/12)(AFP, 5/16/12)(AFP, 6/2/12)
2012 May 11, In Algeria an alliance of Islamist parties expecting a strong showing in Algeria's elections
accused authorities of widespread fraud as initial figures pointed to them finishing third, with a spokesman suggesting unrest could ensue.
(AP, 5/11/12)
2012 May 17, Algerian
singer Warda al-Jazairia (72), the Algerian Rose, died in Cairo. She was a regional icon whose powerful patriotic tunes were matched in popularity by her romantic ballads. She performed for presidents and popular audiences, reinventing herself over the decades to appeal to old and young alike.
(AFP,
5/18/12)
2012 May 20, Algerian newspapers reported that security services have arrested a large number of armed Algerian Islamists in the country's northeastern Tebessa region as they were preparing to enter
Libya.
(AFP, 5/20/12)
2012 Jun 5, In Algeria security forces killed six Al-Qaeda-linked Islamist militants in the Kabylie region, including three in the region's main town of
Tizi Ouzou.
(AFP, 6/17/12)
2012 Jun 7, An Algerian man died (36) in Oran a day after setting himself ablaze in protest when a policeman took away his driver's license in the
Mascara region.
(AFP, 6/7/12)
2012 Jun 15, In Algeria 2 police officers were killed and two others wounded when armed men attacked police barracks east of
Algiers.
(AFP, 6/17/12)
2012 Jun 19, Algerian troops killed eight Islamist militants in the Kabylie region, where Al Qaeda-linked groups remain
active.
(AFP, 6/20/12)
2012 Jun 28, An Algerian court sentenced Abdelmalek Droukdel, the leader of Al-Qaeda's north African branch (AQIM), and seven other Islamists to death for
a series of murders and bombings, though most were tried in absentia. Mohamed Toumi, the only one present of those convicted, was found guilty of killing 5 soldiers in 1993, 14 police and 8 military police in 1994, and 8 more soldiers in 2006.
(AFP, 6/28/12)
2012 Jun 29, In Algeria a dawn attack against the regional headquarters of the paramilitary police in the center of the town of Ouargla killed one person and left three wounded. A Mali-based Islamist group, the Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa (MUJAO), claimed responsibility for the
attack.
(AFP, 6/29/12)
2012 Jul 9, Some 40,000 Algerian police auxiliaries, who once helped in the fight against armed Islamist groups, tried to march on the capital to demand
pay rises and other benefits but were blocked by police.
(AFP, 7/10/12)
2012 Jul 12, An Islamist rebel group in northern Mali said it had freed three of seven Algerian diplomats
kidnapped in Gao on April 5.
(AFP, 7/12/12)
2012 Martin Evans authored “Algeria: France’s Undeclared War.”
(Econ, 12/31/11, p.67)
Subject = Algeria
End of file.
